“Nothing in life is harder than loss,” Shaimaa said, her voice breaking with grief. Her husband, whom she described as “the dearest person I had”, was taken and never returned. So had her brother, 18 other relatives and other people she knew from her community, including her nephews, brothers-in-law, her niece’s husband and one of her father’s cousins.
“No matter how many times I tell the story, it could never do justice to the pain we’ve gone through,” she said, adding that even ten years later, the pain remains raw.
Shaimaa, (47), recounted to Jummar the scene of displacement and detention as she witnessed it with her own eyes, when families first left their homes in Al Azrakiyah, near Fallujah in Anbar province. They walked towards the military forces carrying white flags. The checkpoints were close by.
“We were carrying white flags and asking them to save us from ISIS,” she said. “When we reached them, they took the men before our eyes. They stripped them because they feared they might be carrying explosives.”
Some members of the forces treated the families well. Others did not. Shaimaa said the men were taken by members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) and other groups. She identifiedthem from flags carrying the names of the Badr Forces, an armed group led by Hadi al-Amiri, and Ali al-Akbar, an armed group led by Ali al-Hamdani. Both operated within the PMF and were deployed around Fallujah during the 2016 military campaign. What pains Shimaa most is that what she witnessed with her own eyes, left no trace in the official records.
“I saw with my own eyes which group took them,” she said.
Yet when she began filing official paperwork, the documents stated that “the responsible party is unknown”. No force or unit was recorded as responsible for the arrests. The men’s fate remained unresolved and officially undocumented, even though their families had witnessed them being taken.
Shaimaa lived with her sister and niece, who had lost their husbands and sons, whilst her sister’s salary did not exceed 300,000 Iraqi dinars (229 USD), barely enough to cover basic needs. Aid arrived sporadically, sometimes in the form of food, sometimes as cash, or through certain organisations, but it has been absent for years.
Today, the family survives on social welfare payments that do not cover medical appointments or essential treatment. Shaimaa’s sister undergoes regular dialysis.
“We hope someone can help her receive a kidney transplant,” Shaimaa said, referring to her sister.
The family contacted the Red Cross, who told them they would search for the missing persons, but thus far, they have received no reassuring news.
Although the details of Shaimaa’s tragedy may seem unique, she is not alone; Thousands of families across Iraq, who endure the same anguish, carry the same pain as they wait for word of loved ones who disappeared in similar circumstances.
Six brothers disappeared
Among these stories is that of Rana Sabti (39), who has been living with an open wound since the summer of 2016, when six of her brothers and cousins went missing.
“We have not seen my brothers since that day,” Sabti told Jummar. “Only one returned after four months, with his mental health severely deteriorated. Even so, he remembered his brothers, cousins and the neighbours who had been detained with him. He told us they were all still alive.”
Sabti explained why the family had approached the forces, “We went to them seeking protection from ISIS. We did not know they would take our young men too.”
Her brother, the only one of the six to return, was later dumped at a market in Al Amiriyah, a town in Anbar, around 30 kilometres south of Fallujah He still recalls fragments of his detention, his cousins and the neighbours who had been detained with him, he assured us that they were all still alive.”
In June 2016, the Iraqi government formed a commission of inquiry to investigate the mass abductions in the Saqlawiya district of Anbar Governorate during the operations to liberate Fallujah.
The committee’s report revealed that 643 men and boys were missing, and cases of death and torture were documented. Despite this, no clear operational outcomes have been announced, nor have those involved been officially held accountable to date.
The family’s life changed completely.
“We now farm and raise livestock in Al Azrakiyah, between Saqlawiyah and Fallujah,” Sabti said. “But drought and water scarcity have hit us hard. We rely on aid to survive, as women and children are the only ones left in the family”
The disappearances became inseparable from the family’s daily losses.
“Disappearances and daily tragedies are ever-present; we have lost almost everything: our homes were burnt down, our livestock were lost, family members died in indiscriminate shelling, and we couldn’t even find our cars.”
Promises before every election
Despite the years that had passed, Sabti said neither the authorities nor humanitarian organisations had taken meaningful action.
“Every year before the elections, politicians appear and say they have taken up our case,” she said. “They visit us, Hadi al-Ameri and Hanan al-Fatlawi among them, but no action follows.
“Since then, the issue of the missing has been exploited for propaganda and to win votes, whilst neither the government, nor the Red Cross, nor any humanitarian organisation has taken any real steps to uncover the fate of our children”
Sabti was equally direct about who she said was responsible: “We know exactly who took them, the PMF near the Abu Saada shops on Al Tharthar road, Fallujah.”
The experiences of individual families revealed the wider toll of enforced disappearance on women and children. Shaimaa Al Azzami had spent three years working on cases linked to both ISIS and the PMF.
One case affected her more deeply than the others. On the outskirts of a village, a woman lived in a small house with dirt floors. Her husband had been taken by an official authority in Fallujah and never returned. Her sick children, who needed blood transfusions every month, all died because she could not secure their treatment.
All she has left is her young daughter, who is trying to survive on the charity of others, whilst the mother endeavours to take part in training workshops in the hope of finding work, despite having no formal qualifications.
“The situation is tragic,” Al Azzami told Jummar. “The situation is tragic. There is no breadwinner, no steady income, and no way to improve the situation. Some organisations provide limited support, but it does not meet all needs, nor does it reach all the women affected.”
Al Azzami efforts have focused on cases of enforced disappearance linked to ISIS and the PMF the majority of which have occurred in rural areas, where women rely on farming and livestock rearing to provide for their families, However, drought, a shortage of farmland and the loss of livestock have added to their burdens.
“Many women here are responsible for more than one household because several relatives have been forcibly disappeared,” she said. “They are also caring for sick family members.”
Children carried much of that burden. Many left school to work in nearby towns and help put food on the table. Some shop owners exploited their desperation and forced them to work extra hours without pay.
Every story Al Azzami documented stayed with her, but she said the woman who lost her husband and children had affected her most deeply.
The cases of the missing had also become part of Iraq’s political debate. In a televised interview with Al Rasheed TV at the end of 2022, former President of parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi said the only way to close the case was to compensate the families. He said the “the correct term for them is ‘the murdered’, because they have passed away”.
Al Halbousi accused some Sunni political forces of misleading the families while claiming to defend their cause. Those same forces, he said, had been part of the government at the time.
He urged them to stop exploiting the issue, arguing that they “know best who is responsible for it”. He added that compensation for the families has been included in the State Administration Act and will be implemented through the Budget Act.
From the police to the courts: A long road to nowhere
Omar Al Alwani, head of the Haq Foundation for Human Rights, said women and children carried the heaviest burden caused by the absence of their loved ones. As they face the loss of their livelihoods, social isolation, and psychological stress resulting from the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the disappeared and missing loved ones.
“A large part of this harm falls on the families, as they are unaware of all the legal procedures.” Al Alwani said. “It costs them heavily and deepens their feelings of guilt and frustration.”
“Iraq has no specialist body dedicated to the needs of victims’ families” he said. Some responsibilities fall to the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights. Others are divided between the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and the Martyrs’ Foundation, which oversees cases involving mass graves. Navigating this system is extremely difficult for families.
Al Alwani pointed to other countries in the region: “Lebanon has a legally organised committee for the families of the missing, while Syria has the Independent Institution of Missing Persons.”
Such bodies give families a single place to contact authorities, follow their cases and receive financial, legal and psychological support, he said. In Iraq, families still move between police stations, courts, prisons and hospitals in search of information about their loved ones.
Al-Alwani believes that the ideal solution lies in establishing an independent body covering all cases and regions, with clear powers and comprehensive services, including an internal database, monitoring search operations, providing compensation, offering psychological, social and economic support to families, and facilitating legal procedures.
“This way, the families of missing persons, specifically women, will not have to go from one agency to another to obtain any information or to safeguard their children’s rights.”
The need for an independent institution reflected a much older crisis. Mustafa Abdul Wahid, executive director of Tadaruk for Human Rights, described enforced disappearance as a problem rooted in Iraqi society for decades.
“The issue had become entangled in political and social power struggles.” he said. “Since 2003, some parties had used it to win votes.”
Abdul Wahid said that Iraq still lacks effective legal remedies, specialist institutions and a clear national process. The gaps became particularly stark after 2014, when tens of thousands of people disappeared during conflict involving ISIS, government forces and state-backed armed factions.
He adds that families, particularly women and children, live with the consequences every day. Most of those missing are men who supported their households, leaving relatives to face severe economic and social hardship.” Families also experience discrimination in government institutions and struggle to obtain identity documents. Without them, children may be unable to enrol in school, and women cannot complete essential official procedures.
Women caught between grief and psychological trauma
Abdul Wahid shared with Jummar “Resounding Messages” on psychological and social support sessions for the families of the missing. The figures reveal that some suffer from suicidal thoughts and self-harm, whilst others suffer from depression and PTSD, as well as cognitive problems and excessive anxiety.
Abdul Wahid adds that women, and the families of the victims in general, suffer from long-term psychological trauma as a result of waiting for many years without knowing the fate of their loved ones, which leads to cumulative physical and psychological problems.
He points out that this study, carried out in the governorates of Saladin and Anbar, revealed that most of the victims’ families are suffering from psychological problems requiring urgent intervention, reintegration into society, and treatment for the effects of physical and mental trauma.
Their children face the risk of dropping out of school and may end up on the streets, where they could be exploited or become involved in petty crime such as theft or begging.
The crisis also damaged families’ sense of national belonging and their ability to participate in community life.
“Many of the victims’ families feel isolated and marginalised, and do not take part in national holidays or social and religious occasions.” Abdul Wahid said.
The lack of a legal distinction between missing persons and victims of enforced disappearance
The lack of a clear legal distinction reflected a wider failure in Iraq, one of the country’s most deeply affected by enforced disappearance.
Al Alwani described it as one of the country’s most sensitive and complex unresolved issues. Those responsible had largely escaped accountability, while cases involving enforced disappearance, mass graves, torture and prison conditions remained unresolved. Together, they represented a deep wound in Iraqi society.
Iraqi law does not clearly distinguish between people who are missing and those who have been forcibly disappeared. Enforced disappearance occurs when state authorities, or groups affiliated with them, detain someone and then conceal their fate or whereabouts. A missing person, by contrast, is someone whose whereabouts are unknown, but whose disappearance has not been linked to an official body.
After 2003, Iraqi High Tribunal Law No. 10 of 2005 recognised enforced disappearance as a crime. Yet it applied only to crimes committed between 17 July 1968 and 1 May 2003. This excluded many later victims from justice and reparations. Those forcibly disappeared after that period, along with their families, remain without meaningful legal protection.
Iraq has never established a comprehensive legal framework for enforced disappearance, al-Alwani said, despite becoming a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2010. The convention requires countries that join it to criminalise enforced disappearance and address its consequences.
Instead, laws concerning missing people are divided across different legislation and institutions, including the Personal Status Law and the Law on the Welfare of Minors’ Property. This makes an already painful process even more difficult for families.
Victims’ families left without compensation
Sarmad Saeed al-Badri, director of media and public relations at the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, said successive crises had directly affected people across Iraq. The country had endured grave injustices under both past and present authorities, he told Jummar.
Successive governments had tried to address the consequences of insecurity where possible, particularly disappearances and missing persons, al-Badri said. The commission worked across major areas of human rights, including the rights of children and families, law enforcement and mass graves.
Iraq had perhaps faced some of the region’s harshest experiences of mass graves, he added. The policies of former regimes, followed by violence involving Al Qaeda, ISIS and militias, had left thousands of victims and grieving families. Survivors continued to carry memories of atrocities that had profoundly shaped their lives and Iraqi society.
Al Badri also referred to victims taken outside Iraq, including Yazidis, Turkmen and Arabs. He stressed the need for cooperation between the Iraqi government and neighbouring countries to establish their fate.
Throughout the crisis, women have carried the heaviest burden. Reports by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq UNAMI, indicate that thousands of widows and women whose husbands are missing have been denied inheritance rights. They have also faced barriers to enrolling their children in school and obtaining official documents.
For al-Azzami, official assurances did not change what was written in her family’s papers. Ten years after watching the men being taken away, she still has no answer on their fate or whereabouts. The record continues to say, “The responsible party is unknown.”
