- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part I
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part II
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part III
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part IV
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part V
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part VI
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part VII
- The Absurd Cause For The Faili Kurds Holocausts – Part VIII

Dr. Ala Musa Hasan | Exclusive to iKurd.net
Psychological Effects On Children
Following the displacement of the Faili Kurds people to a new community without identity, employment, capitals, housing, and resources, they set forth on their new journey with many physical, emotional, and psychological challenges living under very dreadful conditions. They were on the quest for a new life, home, and family.
Often they suppressed the trauma they sustained during the Holocaust, pushing it to the backs of their minds, distancing themselves from the terror and the grief to embrace their new lives. Despite their best efforts to “move on,” however, for many this shroud of wellness eventually gave way to a host of emotional and psychological difficulties. Their inability to mourn or to acknowledge their own suffering led them to exhibit a variety of symptoms.
In the refugee Displacement, the Faili Kurds parents found themselves to be confronted by a culture that was essentially different from theirs. The Faili Kurds youths and children found themselves to be caught between the simultaneous impacts of their parents trying to impose their old way of living, and the new demands of the world around them.
The dilemma of the Faili Kurds youths and children that their parents’ demands and prescriptions were inappropriate in the new world; on the other hand, adherence to the demands of the new culture precipitated their displeasure and disapproval of their parents. Thus, the youths and children were caught between the two worlds, and they had difficulty giving their fidelity to either.
As a result, the survivors have experienced few identity and communication problems between parent and child. The parents were over protected for their children, especially the first born, who were seen as the ultimate in the continuation of life as well as the resurrection of lost loved ones. Children, in turn, protected their parents by avoiding asking them questions about their past.
Some Psychologists have classified the post-genocides families into four major categories, such as, “the Victim Families, the Fighter Families, the Numb Families, and the families of “Those Who Made It.”
The Victim Families refer to the family who has been characterized by having a pervasive depression, worry, mistrust, and fear of the outside world. The traumatic event that the Faili Kurds people endured for the last 40 years, made their children to stick so closely to their families.
The children of these families became so concerned and preoccupied with their survival that they would hoard food and money in case another genocide could occur. Children of such families were often trained to be survivors of future Holocausts. These Faili Kurds children were admonished by their parents to keep their low profile, and they were taught not to stand out in the crowd.
These Children often leave their parents’ homes at later age than other young adults, and they remained in close contact with their parents. Many children in this type of family were extraordinarily driven to succeed academically and professionally in order to make it big for their parents.
The Fighter Families refer to the families who their children hunt for success and they are normally became high achiever in life. The traumatic events that the Faili Kurds people experienced during their refugee displacement made their children to be fighters. They managed to convey their physical ability and their spiritual roles during their process of recovery, to counteract the image of victimized Faili Kurds.
At their home atmosphere, their home environment was permeated with an intense drive to build and achieve. They believed in the notion, “The only one who can do it for me is me.” They tend to dislike relaxation and pleasurable feelings because they viewed it to be a waste of time. Confidence and self-assertiveness, the ability to withstand stress and to overcome obstacles were highly encouraged and praised. They have the propensity to encourage aggression against outsiders.
The Numb Families refers to the families who always lived in their state of shock and resignation. Rarely did their children know the specific details of their parents’ life histories, yet they had the feeling their parents were marked by the past. In most numb families, the parents protected each other and the children protected the parents.
While clinging to each other and never fighting with each other, the parents not only excluded their children, but also often neglected them. The children often viewed the parents as old, distant, and withdrawn. The children frequently adopted outside authorities and peers as family in an attempt to seek identification models and to learn how to live.
And “Those Who made it”, refer to those families who their children moved on with their horrors and they accomplished lots in their lives. Most of their children grew up to become successful. They overcame the pain and the nightmares. Today they are lawyers, teachers, physicians, philanthropists, and professors.
The Sons and daughters of the Faili Kurds survivors are among the nation’s high achievers academically and in the professions. Many of these children have chosen human service careers as a response to the inhumanity suffered by their people and a wish to help other victims of injustice and oppression.
Other Psychologist talked about The Four Phases of Refugee stressful experiences that are surrounding the children and youths during their escape phase are anticipation, devastating events, survival, and adjustment (March, Amaya, Murray, & Schult, 1998).
These reactions can fit within the three phases of the Faili Kurds refugee experiences such as, pre-flight, flight, and the resettlement phase. The pre-flight phase refers to the time that was prior to the refugee’s escape from their country of origin, that either was occurred as a result of political violence and/or war. During the pre-flight phase, refugee’s children are faced with many social upheaval and increasing chaos in their region. This can include their limited access to schools that might disrupt their education and social development.
At the family and the individual levels, refugees are often faced with many threats to their safety and their family members as well. Prior to flight phase, refugees try to cope with devastating events (March, Amaya, Murray, & Schult, 1998). Refugee youth may witness violence, or even engage in it.
During flight phase, the refugees face great uncertainty about their future, and surviving the displacement from their homes and their transitional placement (refugee camp). They are often at the mercy of external sources such as the united nation, to meet their basic needs.
At those times, many children are born into this phase, and they might endure some psychological development during this transition period, and the separation from their parents and caregivers is very common. At the Resettlement phase, the new belief systems, values, and mores of the host country will challenge the refugee’s adjustment (March, Amaya, Murray, & Schult, 1998).
Also, a large number of studies have documented a wide range of symptoms experienced by traumatized refugee children, including anxiety, recurring nightmares, insomnia, secondary enuresis, introversion, anxiety and depressive symptoms, relationship problems, behavioral problems, academic difficulties, anorexia, and somatic problems (Martinez, & Richters, 1993).
These studies linked the presence of these symptoms to exposure to trauma prior to migration. With high prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms among refugee children reported to be between 50-90% (Lustig et al., 2004). The flight phase appears to be particularly stressful for refugee youths, due to its instability and unpredictability. This phase can be very distressing on young refugees, by the process of separation from their families, the refugee camps, and their networking system.
The slow or delay of the refugees adaptation process, can lead to Lack of Psychological adaptation that may cause anxiety, depression and other symptoms, that can impact self-esteem and well-being of refugee youths. This in return can impact their Socio-cultural adaptation process that includes school adjustment and a lack of behavioral problems such as delinquency, truancy, rebellion, etc. refugee youths can experience a great number of stressors throughout their pre-migration phase, flight phase, and the resettlement phase that can impact on their psychological well being.
Refugee youths can experience trauma resulting from war and political violence in their countries of origin prior to migration, as well as during flight phase or in refugee camps. These multiple stressors include direct exposure to war time violence and combat experience, displacement and loss of home, malnutrition, separation from caregivers, detention and torture and a multitude of other traumatic circumstances affecting the children’s health, mental health and general well being (Eisenbruch, 1988).
The Faili Kurds holocaust made the Faili Kurds parents to hold a high hopes and ambivalent feelings towards their children. They tend to think that the world became a dangerous place for children, and especially for Faili Kurds children. For the Faili Kurds survivors, their intense personal war continued in which their ultimate victory would be obtained through the success and survival of their children.
The second generation children of the Faili Kurds people are now parents themselves. They considered themselves to be the legatees to the Faili Kurds Holocaust and the bridge between the two worlds. Many of them today are bearing the names of their loved ones, whom they have never met. For the second generation, the Faili Kurds Holocaust is their historical phenomenon, their past, their parent’s lives, and their grandparents and relatives deaths.
Following the displacement and the war, Faili Kurds immigrants who were able to leave the refugee camp in Iran and migrated to Europe were strongly encouraged by their relatives who lived there before them to abandon their trauma and to suppress their memory of their experiences and to move on. They were encouraged to look to the future because this was more important than the past.
Our new generation took the responsibility to make sure that the Faili Kurds Holocaust will be remembered for ever. They set it down in an unprecedented volume of journal testimonies, news articles, and oral histories.
Whatever we report, write, and document should be a public record for our generation to come. Because, for many years, the Faili Kurds people were considered to be a hazardous community to Iraq’s social structure and they needed to be eliminated from Iraq’s culture. Thus, the Faili Kurds people were subject to massive and inhumane deportation and immense execution, and they had no escape from it.
Dr. Ala Musa Hasan, a Canada-based Faili Kurd, PHD Candidates in Clinical Psychology.
The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.
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