America’s Heartland Helps Iraq's Yazidis
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2015年(八月)
America’s Heartland Helps Iraq's Yazidis
KATY, TEXAS—
Attacks by the self-styled "Islamic State," also known as ISIL, on the Yazidi religious minority in the mountains of northern Iraq have driven thousands of men, women and children into refugee camps -- where life remains 1 uncertain and difficult. Small Yazidi immigrant communities in the U.S. heartland are trying to provide relief to their brethren in Iraq and alert the world to their plight 2.
What haunts Murad Ismael is a cell phone call from a Yazidi woman after Islamic State fighters captured her and her companions last year.
“They shot four more women. I could hear them shooting. Then they threw them away, they threw their bodies away. They said their bodies had been kept for the dogs,” he said.
Harrowing stories
Ismael said women who have escaped tell many stories of young girls committing suicide rather than be used as sex slaves.
“It is not fair, it is not fair, and that is the fate of all the Yazidi women who are captured,” he said.
Last year, when the ISIL attacks began, Ismael and other Yazidis in the Houston area — along with members of a large Yazidi community in Lincoln, Nebraska — formed a group called Yazda.
Yazda President Haider Elias said it was difficult at first because few Americans had ever heard of the Yazidis.
“We had to introduce them to the Yazidi religion first and then present the issue,” Elias said.
Elias told people about the Yazidis’ religious traditions, which draw influences from Islam and other religions, but draw only scorn from radical 3 Muslims.
Yazda's efforts
Yazda operates a relief center in Iraq and is now trying to provide psychological therapy for female victims of rape 4 and abuse.
But Elias said the United Nations should do more than set up refugee camps for these victims of attempted genocide.
“We have been very frustrated 5 with those great countries that are handling or making decisions for the UN. They have not been doing anything to help the Yazidis specifically,” she said.
At the end of this month, Murad Ismael plans to return to Iraq to assess the Yazidis’ situation and gather testimony 6 from ISIL victims.
- He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
- The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
- The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
- She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。
- The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
- She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
- The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
- He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。
- It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
- The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》