The Yazidis are a religious group indigenous to the geographical region of Northeast Syria, Northern Iraq and parts of Turkey & Iran. This region is often referred to as Kurdistan. There are also large communities in Armenia, Georgia & Russia. In addition to speaking the languages of the country they reside in (Arabic, Turkish and Farsi), Yazidis are native Kurmanji speakers – A dialect of the Kurdish language. Ethnically, the Yazidi community is Kurdish.
The Yazidi faith is believed to have origins in pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith. Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest organized faiths and is native to Iran. The merging of multiple faiths and ideologies over time culminated in what is known today as the Yazidi faith. The similarity between the two is credited to their shared origins, but are today completely distinct.
Initially not a monotheistic faith, the faith evolved to a belief in one God, symbolized by the sun. Yazidis believe in the inexistence of an evil entity that opposes the goodness of this God, that life is both good and bad (containing elements of heaven and hell), and that life beyond death is unknowable.
Yazidis have a strong tie with the elements of nature, and their spiritual center, the temple of Lalish, lies in a mountain valley in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in northern Iraq roughly 90 km from Syrian borders. An important religious symbol which can be seen in Yazidi temples is the peacock. Yazidis believe that God had appointed 7 beings/angels responsible for worldly affairs. The most prominent of them was the Peacock Angel (Tawusi Melek).The most important of Yazidi traditions include the New Year, marked on the first Wednesday of April according to the Eastern Calendar.
Yazidis have a fasting period (Ezee) marked by abstaining from food, drink, excessive speech, and foul language for three days followed by a day of celebration. Fasting is done privately on the shortest days of the year.
Prayers are recited in Kurdish and sometimes include sentences in Arabic & Syriac as a result of centuries-long intermingling with the Aramaeans/Assyrians & the Arabs of the region. Marriage is only from within the faith. Interestingly, Yazidis divide themselves into three groups based on religious duties: the Mreet, Sheikh, and Peer, and intermarriage between them is forbidden.
In Syria, Yazidis mainly reside in the northwest in Syria’s Al Jazira region in the governorate of Al Hasakah in Qamishli, as well as in the Kurd Mountains (Kurd-Dagh) in northeastern Syria, and the nearby city of Afrin in the Governorate of Aleppo.
Syria boasted a community of several thousands of Yazidis before the war, one of the largest in the world after Iraq. Today, they number between 10,000 and 40,000 forming less than 0.5% of Syria’s population. There are several dozen Yazidi settlements and villages in Syria, some with a Yazidi majority like Ain Dara. In Syria’s Al Jazira region, Yazidis have long lived amongst Syrians of different backgrounds: Syrian Arabs, a large indigenous Assyrian/Aramaean Christian (Syriac speaking) & Kurdish Muslim population and a sizable Armenian Christian community. Most of those who fled to Europe settled in Germany.
While all Syrians have been impacted by war to varying degrees and members of all communities have fled, Yazidis were particularly negatively impacted having lived through the brutality of genocide by ISIS.
There have been many recorded massacres against Yazidis and horrifying accounts of rape and sexual slavery. The community in Syria had also long been politically persecuted and socially marginalized.
In addition, as a result of poorer services and successful educational/career opportunities in their communities, many younger Yazidis leave their communities for Syria’s urban centers. Despite the Syrian constitution declaring to respect all religions and ensuring “the freedom to perform religious rituals as long as these do not disturb the public order”, there have generally been no efforts undertaken at any level to ensure their official recognition as a religious community.
Many Yazidi parents face choosing which religion class their children should attend, as the Syrian public school system offers a mandatory class for either Islam or Christianity- in turn, many Yazidi children face some forms of discrimination either for being Kurdish (typically outside Al Jazira region) or due to harmful misconceptions surrounding their faith. Yazidis are commonly accused of being devil or fire/sun worshippers, a misconception that has seriously harmed them.
Each of the women mentioned are Iraqi born Yazidis who had been captured by ISIS &subject to abuse, rape, & sexual slavery.
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