Jan Ilhan Kizilhan

Jan Ilhan Kizilhan

Prof. Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, psychologist, psychotherapist, trauma expert, orientalist, head of department of Mental Health and Addiction at the State University in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and is chief psychologist of the Special-Quota Project, a programme funded by the State Government of Baden-Württemberg. The project aims was to bring 1100 women and children who have been held hostage by Islamic State to Germany for medical treatment. He is also the Founding Dean of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychotraumatology at the University of Duhok/Northern Iraq.

Genocide, Trauma and sexual violation - Terror crimes against religion minorities in Middle East
In July and August, 2014, fighters tore into Kurdish northern Iraq and committed a horrific genocide under the black banner of Islamic State. Islamic State fighters took more than 7000 people hostage, killing around 5000, mainly men. Captured women and girls have been subjected to sexual violence as an explicit Islamic State tactic to break the dignity and the honour of the communities. 
The Yazidis are facing three types of trauma, not just their individual recent trauma but a transgenerational and collective trauma—they’ve faced genocide 73 times during the ottoman empire. Such deep-rooted traumatic instability complicates narrative therapy, in which an individual is helped to identify with their history and value to confront the problems they have.