World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Iraq : Shabak

Updated October 2014

Profile

The Shabak are an ethnic and cultural minority located in a handful of villages east of Mosul, in the Nineveh Plains, and a small group in Mosul itself. Their language is a confection of Turkish, Persian, Kurdish and Arabic. About 70 per cent of the group is Shi'a and the rest Sunni. Shabak have been in Iraq since 1502, and today are mainly farmers.

Historical context

According to some locals, the name Shabak is derived from Arabic shabaka (which means 'inter- twining') as an indication that the Shabak are composed of many different tribes. For political reasons, it has at times been tempting to overemphasize one of the component features of the Shabaks, and to claim that they are Arabs, Kurds, or Turkomans. During the Hussein era, the government attempted to 'Arabize' the Shabak in an effort to consolidate control of the oil-rich north.

Current issues

Like most minorities that are linked into the Kurdish identity in some way, the Shabaks are also caught up in a process of consolidating their own identity within an emerging Kurdistan, and of clarifying their links with both the Kurdish and Arab ethnic identities. Particularly following the ouster of the Hussein regime, Shabak in the Nineveh Plains have faced harassment from Kurdish militants. Kurds wishing to extend land claims into the Nineveh governate claim that Shabaks are really Kurds. Additionally, the majority of Shabak who are Shi'a have been targeted by Sunni militants. Shabak have been victims to some of the worst instances of large-scale violence in recent years and an estimated 1,300 have been killed since 2003. Those living in the disputed areas of Ninewa governorate, and especially Mosul, have been the targets of militant groups attempting to provoke displacement of minorities from the area. ISIS has also been accused of kidnapping Shabak in a tactic to gaining leverage with the government in Baghdad.

There were major, repeated attacks on Shabak villages and gatherings throughout 2013. On 26 April 2013, gunmen attacked a Shabak mosque in the village of Kokjali, clashing with people defending the mosque for several hours. On 24 July 2013, eight young Shabak police officers were murdered in an armed attack while on duty on the road to Baghdad. On 14 September 2013, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shabak funeral in Ba'ashiqa, killing 34 people and wounding early 50 others, some of whom had to be transferred to hospitals in Mosul and Erbil for emergency treatment. Throughout the year, many other Shabak were assassinated in individual attacks, including a number on worshippers. On 17 October 2013 there was an attack on the village of Muwafaqiya as its Shabak residents were preparing for Eid Al-Adha celebrations. A truck carrying sacrificial animals exploded upon entering the village, killing sixteen people and wounding fifty-one, and leading to extensive damage of homes and properties. On 24 December 2013 terrorists targeted Shabak worshippers as they were in procession towards the shrine of Imam Zain Al-Abedin in Ali Rasho village as part of the arba'een rituals commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein bin Ali.

Targeted violence against the community continued during 2014. On 6 February 2014, a car loaded with more than two tons of explosives was disarmed by security forces before it could be detonated in the Shabak village of Amna. On 23 April 2014 a car bomb exploded in the Shabak village of Baybukh in Ninewa, killing thirteen people and injuring twenty-four others. On 6 June 2014 at least 13 Shabak were killed and more than 40 wounded when two car bombs were set off in Tahrawa village, near Mosul.

Shabak, like other minorities, have suffered from the ISIS advance into Mosul and the Ninewa Plain between June and August 2014. ISIS militants kidnapped 21 Shabak from Gokjali, eastern Mosul in June. Shabak properties in Mosul were marked with an 'R' (as opposed to an 'N' for Nazerene or Christian) to signify 'Rafida', a term ISIS militants use to designate Shia Muslims and others who have 'rejected' their interpretation of Islam. There were also reports that Shabak, as well as Yezidis, who refused to comply with ISIS orders were tried in newly-established shari'a courts and executed. By August, an estimated 60 Shabak villages had come under the control of ISIS. There have been reports of massacres and kidnappings of Shabak civilians, although accurate numbers are difficult to obtain. According to one estimate, at least 117 families have been killed so far. In addition, more than 3,000 Shabak families have lost their homes and have fled to Shia-majority towns in southern and central Iraq or to the KRG.