tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/yazidi-kurds-11844/articlesYazidi kurds – The Conversation2021-12-06T14:34:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1730432021-12-06T14:34:29Z2021-12-06T14:34:29ZYazidi genocide: landmark guilty verdict for IS jihadi could transform how atrocities are brought to justice<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59474616">genocide verdict</a> brought recently by a German court against an Iraqi member of Islamic State for crimes including the murder of a five-year-old Yazidi girl is a landmark decision which will clear the way for similar prosecutions. That this verdict was even possible was thanks to a detailed (and remarkably speedy) <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/iicisyria/pages/aboutcoi.aspx">report in 2016</a> which established that violence against the Yazidi community in northwest Iraq had amounted to genocide.</p>
<p>Taha al-Jumailly was sentenced to life imprisonment after the court heard that the jihadist enslaved the five-year-old in 2015, chaining her up and leaving her to die of thirst.</p>
<p>The concept of international crimes is relatively new, stemming from the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court (<a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/documents/rs-eng.pdf">Rome Statute</a>). These are understood as “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole”. At the top of this list is the crime of genocide. This is defined, in Article 6 of the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/documents/rs-eng.pdf">Rome Statute</a> of the International Criminal Court, as: “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. </p>
<p>The development of international criminal law is deeply rooted in the atrocities committed during the second world war in Europe and Asia, brought to light at the <a href="https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol13/iss1/14/">Nuremberg</a> and <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/A9B8696D-FF7E-4CF0-90B0-F47C4C2D9EAB/283891/Totanichapter_correctversion.pdf">Tokyo</a> war crimes tribunals. These two pioneering tribunals established the individual criminal responsibility of heads of state and military leaders for gross violations of human rights. This was rapidly endorsed by the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/genocide-and-the-europeans/united-nations-general-assembly-resolution-96-i-11-december-1946/89C2FEA43A6B5F24B594DF3741457AF4">1946 resolution</a> of the United Nations General Assembly, and followed by the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml">Genocide Convention</a> in 1948. </p>
<p>The significance of these developments is that international law seldom holds individuals responsible for violating it. It has only done so previously in instances of <a href="https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1757&context=hastings_international_comparative_law_review%20page%20393">piracy and slave-trading</a>. Without this structural tool of individual responsibility for a heinous crime, it would not be possible to bring perpetrators to justice and deter such behaviour in the future. </p>
<p>Genocide has come to be known as the “crime of crimes”, but it is also the most difficult to prove because it does not only require intent, but specific intent to destroy an identifiable group of people. </p>
<h2>Establishing genocide as a crime</h2>
<p>The guilty verdict against al-Jumailly was only possible because of the work done prior to the case which established the occurrence of genocide in relation to the crime committed by this individual: the Independent International Commission of Inquiry <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_32_CRP.2_en.pdf">reported to</a> the Human Rights Council in 2016 that genocide was being carried out against the Yazidi community by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS).</p>
<p>In its 40-page report it established that IS had sought to destroy the Yazidis. It had done this through killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily and mental harm. All of these are prohibited acts under the Rome Statute. </p>
<p>In April 2020, al-Jumailly was charged with crimes under the <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/vstgb/BJNR225410002.html">German Code of Crimes</a> against international law, which implemented the Rome Statute into German criminal law, for his act of buying a Yazidi woman and her child from an IS fighter and subsequently providing them with insufficient food and <a href="https://intr2dok.vifa-recht.de/receive/mir_mods_00008996">prohibiting them</a> from practising their religion. The child later died from being tied to a window and left unprotected in a temperature of 50°C as a punishment for bed-wetting. </p>
<h2>Rare cases of justice</h2>
<p>Iraq is not party to the Rome Statute – and therefore the International Criminal Court (ICC) has <a href="https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/pages/the%20states%20parties%20to%20the%20rome%20statute.aspx">no jurisdiction</a> over these crimes. Cases must be held in a domestic court of a country that is signatory to the Rome Statute or recognises a special provision in international law, known as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/10/19/basic-facts-universal-jurisdiction">universal jurisdiction</a>, through its <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/customary-law">customary law</a>.</p>
<p>Ordinarily, German courts would not have had jurisdiction in this case as the accused was a foreign national and the crime took place outside Germany (in Iraq). But because Germany recognises universal jurisdiction, its court was able to hear the case. </p>
<p>In practice, few countries have ever exercised this jurisdiction. Previous examples include the arrest in London on an international warrant of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for crimes committed during his regime from 1973 to 1990. Others prosecuted have included individuals in <a href="https://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/the-guatemala-genocide-case/">Guatemala</a> and <a href="https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/12/issue/1/spanish-supreme-court-affirms-conviction-argentine-former-naval-officer">Spain</a>. </p>
<p>But it is important that states do this – since international crimes do not get prosecuted enough and are often only prosecuted as offences in national criminal law. For example in March 2020, an Iraqi court <a href="https://www.jurist.org/news/2020/03/iraq-court-sentences-isis-rapist-to-death/">sentenced Mohammed Rashid Sahab</a>, also a former IS militant, to death for “repeatedly raping a Yazidi woman whom he held captive” and had forced to marry him. There was no mention of genocide, however. </p>
<p>While it is possible for the UN Security Council to refer cases to the ICC, geopolitics has all-too-often intervened to prevent unity among the permanent members of the Security Council. This has effectively meant that this route to prosecution of international crimes is closed. So, given the extremely sensitive and highly political nature of prosecution of international crimes, the German court has taken an important step by assuming universal jurisdiction in this case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chamu Kuppuswamy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The verdict opens the way for further genocide prosecutions.Chamu Kuppuswamy, Senior lecturer and interdisciplinary researcher, School of Law, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269172019-11-26T13:35:40Z2019-11-26T13:35:40Z5 years after Islamic State massacre, an Iraqi minority is transformed by trauma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303532/original/file-20191125-74542-1rexbz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3732%2C2641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dilbar Ali Ravu, 10, is kissed by his aunt, Dalal Ravu, as Yazidi children are reunited with their families in Iraq after five years of captivity with the Islamic State group, March 2, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Iraq-Yazidis/b29290af2a7948a8b707bce676e7a68f/16/0">AP Photo/Philip Issa, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been five years since the Islamic State killed <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002297">3,100 Yazidi people</a> in Iraq – mostly men and the elderly – forced <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/06/world/meast/iraq-crisis-minority-persecution/index.html">6,800 women and children</a> into sexual slavery, marriage or religious conversion and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing.</p>
<p>The Islamic State saw the Yazidis as infidels with no right to exist under <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-caliph-the-islamic-state-tries-to-boost-its-legitimacy-by-hijacking-a-historic-institution-126175">the extremist group’s rule</a>. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13530194.2019.1577129">The Yazidis</a> are a Kurdish-speaking Mideast minority whose monotheistic religion differs from Islam, Judaism and Christianity. They have a distinct historical lineage and no systematic requirement of fasting or prayer for the faithful. The Yazidis have lived in northern Iraq <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yazidis-i-general-1">since at least the 12th century</a>. </p>
<p>Today, more than 3,000 enslaved Yazidi women and children in Iraq <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/life-after-isis-slavery-for-yazidi-women-and-children">have been freed from IS captivity</a>, but life is far from normal. </p>
<p>Since 2017, we have <a href="https://sciences.ucf.edu/politics/kps/projects/">interviewed over a hundred Yazidi</a> survivors, both in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Germany, where several thousand Yazidis <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/surviving-genocide-storytelling-and-ritual-help-communities-heal">have sought asylum since the massacre</a>. Our research documented long-lasting emotional, cultural and spiritual effects from the violence they experienced. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303524/original/file-20191125-74599-chlfbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exhuming a mass grave in Iraq’s northwestern region of Sinjar, where IS’s assault of the Yazidis occurred, March 15, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Iraq-Exhumation/85724d75f5a44eb5a56f74c96babd00b/3/0">AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed</a></span>
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<h2>Cynicism and secularization</h2>
<p>This once tight-knit religious community has been transformed by the Islamic State’s assault, albeit in different ways for different people. </p>
<p>Those who survived the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27778112">August 2014 massacre</a> – which the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/06/532312-un-human-rights-panel-concludes-isil-committing-genocide-against-yazidis">United Nations has declared a genocide</a> – now live as displaced people <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5cd156657.pdf">in Iraqi Kurdistan</a> or as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/yazidis-seek-church-asylum-europe-empathy-refugees-wanes-180828221815711.html">refugees abroad</a>. </p>
<p>For many Yazidis, religious practice has been replaced by a struggle to survive. </p>
<p>“I don’t care what will happen to the Yazidi identity in the future, or if all Yazidis live in foreign countries,” said Gule, a displaced Yazidi woman we met in a Yazidi village in Duhok, Iraq. </p>
<p>To protect the anonymity of our interviewees, who continue to be vulnerable and insecure, we refer to them by their first names only.</p>
<p>Gule, who once had a house in her village, now lives in a tent with her children and chronically ill husband. All she wants for Yazidis is “a house, an income.” </p>
<p>Being targeted for their religious identity has made Xidir, a young man in his late 20s, disillusioned with religion in general.</p>
<p>“When you look at what has happened, not only this genocide [but] all these wars, all this violence, you see it is because of religion,” Xidir told us.</p>
<p>Xidir lives in a camp for displaced Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan and struggles to provide for his family. </p>
<p>“I don’t believe in any religion anymore,” he told us. “I wish I could erase all religions from the Earth.”</p>
<h2>Embracing Yazidi identity</h2>
<p>Others have had the opposite experience. </p>
<p>The Yazidis have long led a <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-yezidis-9781784532161/">precarious existence</a> alongside their Muslim and Christian neighbors in Iraq. The Islamic State’s assault was a bitter reminder that they are a persecuted people, causing many to feel more strongly committed to their faith.</p>
<p>“Before I would say, I am a Yazidi, and that was it. But now it is different,” said Azad, who had escaped to Kurdistan with his family during the IS attacks. “When I say I am a Yazidi [now], I embrace it in a whole new way.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4083%2C2520&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303526/original/file-20191125-74542-18lxhxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Yazidi refugees who escaped IS – many on foot – at the Newroz camp in Iraq, Aug. 13, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Yazidi_refugees.jpg">Rachel Unkovic/International Rescue Committee</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the Yazidis we spoke with expressed greater concern for Yazidi holy sites like the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/middle-east/lalish-yazidi-kurdistan-sheikh-adi-ibn-musafir-erbil-peacock-angel-sinjar-isis-a7726486.html">Lalish</a> temple complex in Iraqi Kurdistan. They said they were determined to preserve <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Yezidi-Oral-Tradition-in-Iraqi-Kurdistan/Allison/p/book/9781138883871">Yazidi oral traditions</a>, such as religious hymns known as “qawls,” and to pass their faith on to future generations.</p>
<p>But they are not necessarily strict practitioners of the Yazidi religion, praying daily or making pilgrimages to the Lalish. In fact, many Yazidis we interviewed in Germany – like other <a href="https://theconversation.com/syrian-refugees-in-turkey-are-there-to-stay-at-least-for-now-125176">war refugees just struggling to survive in their new homes</a> – had become more secular. </p>
<p>Their renewed interest in their Yazidi identity was primarily cultural and political. They <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Online-social-media-campaign-on-4th-anniversary-of-Yazidi-genocide-563987">advocate for their community</a> on social media and see Yazidis as a separate ethnic group with a unique history – a people that should have autonomous political representation in Iraq, perhaps even self-rule. </p>
<h2>Yazidi women find power and struggle</h2>
<p>The status of women in Yazidi society has also changed since the massacre, our research found. </p>
<p>Despite some recent advances in women’s rights, the Yazidi culture remains <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2018/10/12/to-address-the-plight-of-yazidi-women-we-must-look-beyond-the-notion-of-wartime-sex-slaves/">deeply patriarchal</a>. Women’s educational attainment, labor participation and political representation is very low. Many Yazidi women marry as young as 15 and become financially dependent on, and socially subordinate to, their husbands for the rest of their lives. </p>
<p>This social structure was upended by the Islamic State’s highly gendered attack, in which men were killed, while women and girls were kidnapped. </p>
<p>Some Iraqi Yazidi women actually gained real or symbolic power. The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/murad/facts/">Nadia Murad</a>, for example, survived IS captivity to become an international activist. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303534/original/file-20191125-74557-1v3n7lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nadia Murad has been globally honored for her efforts to obtain justice for the Yazidis, Feb. 6, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://live.staticflickr.com/4862/47010087691_95d7691f89_b.jpg">US Dept. of State</a></span>
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<p>We also met some Yazidi women working outside the home for the first time. </p>
<p>“I work with people from all backgrounds, I travel alone,” said Leila, a college graduate from Sinjar who works for an international Christian philanthropy. </p>
<p>“My family respects this, as I contribute to the family budget,” she said. “I feel confident and proud of myself.”</p>
<p>The lives of most Yazidi women, however, are more precarious than before. </p>
<p>Many lost not only their homes but also their husbands, fathers and brothers – the breadwinners. And while the Yazidi religious leadership <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2015/6/56ec1e9611/yazidi-women-welcomed-back-to-the-faith.html">welcomed women survivors back from IS captivity</a>, the community <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yezidis-sinjar-massacre-rape-iraq-isis-fighters-children-a9037126.html">strongly opposes integrating the children</a> born of rape by IS members, forcing some mothers to make an impossible choice between their children and their people. </p>
<h2>‘I am not afraid to tell my story’</h2>
<p>When we met 31-year-old Nesreen in the summer of 2018, she was living in a Yazidi village in Duhok, Iraq. She told us her husband was killed by IS and that she and her two children had endured almost three years of enslavement. </p>
<p>No one in her family had received therapy. They all live together in a tent, dependent on a monthly allowance of 100,000 Iraqi dinars – around US$84 – from the Kurdistan regional government.</p>
<p>With the help of her brother, Nesreen had written a manuscript telling the story of her captivity. </p>
<p>“I escaped the hell and I am not scared to tell my story,” she told us. But, she wondered, “How can we get a normal life after all this?” </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tutku Ayhan received travel assistance from the Project on Middle East Political Studies for her fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Güneş Murat Tezcür receives funding from Global Religion Research Initiative based at the University of Notre Dame. </span></em></p>Interviews with the Yazidi survivors of IS attacks that killed 3,100 people in 2014 reveal the emotional, cultural and spiritual scars of religious persecution.Tutku Ayhan, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Central FloridaGüneş Murat Tezcür, Jalal Talabani Chair and Professor of Political Science, University of Central FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1077832018-12-04T22:20:49Z2018-12-04T22:20:49ZThe world’s disturbing inaction as the Genocide Convention turns 70<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248758/original/file-20181204-34134-yuy3ah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents stand near rescued Rohingya men after they were brought ashore by local fishermen in Kuala Idi, Aceh province, Indonesia on Dec. 4, 2018. A wooden boat carrying the hungry and weak Rohingya Muslims, forced to flee Myanmar and Bangladesh, was found adrift. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Iskandar Ishak)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month marks the 70th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crimeofgenocide.aspx">Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide</a>. This is a foundational piece of international law that was born out of the mass atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against European Jews during the Second World War. </p>
<p>Despite the passage of time, we can still find inspiration in the example of <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/coining-a-word-and-championing-a-cause-the-story-of-raphael-lemkin">Raphael Lemkin</a>. After fleeing to the United States when he lost his family to the Holocaust, Lemkin campaigned for the establishment of an international law to define and forbid genocide. When his resolution proposing the Genocide Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, it became the UN’s first human rights treaty.</p>
<p>The Genocide Convention has since led to other norms and mechanisms, two of which are crucial in combating large-scale human rights violations. </p>
<p>The first is the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/Main.aspx">International Criminal Court</a> (ICC), established through the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/Documents/RS-Eng.pdf">Rome Statute</a> in 1998, with a mandate to prosecute those who commit the crime of genocide. The second is the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/about-responsibility-to-protect.html">Responsibility to Protect</a> (R2P), a global political commitment to prevent and interdict genocide and ensure the Convention is operational. R2P was initiated in 2001 under the leadership of Canada, and endorsed by all UN member states in 2005 at the UN <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/worldsummit_2005.shtml">World Summit</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the conditions that led to the Genocide Convention hold ominous similarities to our world today. The protection of human rights, the commitment to multi-lateralism and our rules-based international order are all under threat. </p>
<h2>‘Mute and dysfunctional’</h2>
<p>The ICC is under fierce partisan attack. Nationalism and xenophobia in Europe and Asia have produced authoritarian regimes, emboldened by a White House that has relinquished moral leadership and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/trump-xi-jinping-dictators/554810/">condones their worst behaviour</a>. And the UN Security Council, responsible for acting on humanity’s behalf, stands by mute and dysfunctional.</p>
<p>Most troubling of all, there has been a resurgence of the very crimes the Genocide Convention was intended to address.</p>
<p>In August, a <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/08/1017802">UN fact-finding mission</a> determined the state-led ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to be an act of genocide. This was echoed one month later by <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4470455/canada-declares-myanmar-rohingya-genocide/">Canada’s parliament</a>, which voted historically to recognize the events as genocide, calling for the prosecution of those in the Burmese military who are responsible. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248763/original/file-20181204-34148-ewnh2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nadia Murad, a Yazidi who escaped the Islamic State and a co-recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, is seen in Paris after a meeting with the French president in this October 2018 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Francois Mori)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/09/09/eradicating-ideological-viruses/chinas-campaign-repression-against-xinjiangs">the Uyghurs</a> are still being rounded up in mass detention camps in western China, facing the prospect of annihilation. And <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20113">the Yazidis</a>, a minority group in Iraq, endured attempted genocide at the hands of ISIS, a crime that continues to go unpunished. <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/murad/facts/">Nadia Murad</a>, a Yazidi survivor who was sold into sexual slavery, was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for using her voice to campaign for the prevention and punishment of genocide.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canada-must-prosecute-returning-isis-fighters-105198">Why Canada must prosecute returning ISIS fighters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our collective response to these heinous crimes has fallen far short of what the Convention requires. Most UN member states have shown reluctance even to use the term “genocide” when it obviously applies, no doubt worried they’ll be called upon to meet the responsibilities laid out in the Convention — to prevent and to punish. </p>
<h2>Inaction now the norm</h2>
<p>So inaction in the face of mass atrocity has sadly become the norm. While R2P was adopted relatively recently, it is already in danger of atrophying to irrelevance. R2P has not led to effective responses in Syria, Iraq, Myanmar, Yemen or South Sudan. Indeed, R2P has not been meaningfully invoked since the controversial 2011 intervention <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2011/05/19/the-lessons-of-libya">in Libya</a>. </p>
<p>While there are ample grounds to criticize the way R2P was implemented in that case, it is shameful to use those concerns as an excuse for doing nothing to prevent atrocities elsewhere. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council must take up their responsibility and stop abusing their undeserved privilege to advance their narrow self-interest.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248768/original/file-20181204-34128-14vsh66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adama Dieng, the UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, has issued a call for action that is so far going unheeded.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">United Nations/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>History shows that individuals like Raphael Lemkin and Nadia Murad can make a difference. But the promise of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/europe/germany-anti-semitism.html">“never again”</a> will ring hollow in the absence of political leadership. </p>
<p>Only 149 UN member states have ratified the Convention, leaving 45 to do so. Adama Dieng, the UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, has launched <a href="https://medium.com/we-the-peoples/70-years-of-the-genocide-convention-demonstrating-our-commitment-to-the-promise-of-never-again-6d97ec7ba424">an appeal</a> for universal ratification. </p>
<p>Faced with a lacklustre response, he said this: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What message are those states sending, 70 years after the adoption of the convention? That genocide could never happen within their borders? That is being naïve. History has shown us time and again that genocide can happen anywhere.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Heeding history’s call, we must reaffirm our commitment to the Genocide Convention and work towards universal ratification. More importantly, we must abide by the convention’s terms and show the moral courage of our convictions. </p>
<p>The Genocide Convention’s anniversary comes at a perilous time. But it can also be a moment of promise if we summon the spirit of 1948 and renew our collective determination to prevent and punish the most serious crime of all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyle Matthews is affiliated with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, the Canadian International Council, the Global Diplomacy Lab and the BMW Foundation's Responsible Leaders network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allan Rock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UN’s Genocide Convention turns 70 this month. It’s time for the world to reaffirm its commitment to the international law and show the moral courage of our convictions.Kyle Matthews, Executive Director, The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia UniversityAllan Rock, President Emeritus and Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, former Attorney General of Canada and Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/481272015-10-08T06:00:31Z2015-10-08T06:00:31ZReport from Iraq: religion lends Yazidis a profound resilience in the face of persecution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96290/original/image-20150926-17736-1hxmcwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pilgrims assemble to visit the mausoleum and shrine of Sheikh Adi in the valley of Lalish.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tyler Fisher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Iraq’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280">Yazidis</a> maintain an oral tradition that tallies the massacres inflicted upon them over the centuries. Some say there have been 72, others 73. Whatever the number, genocidal campaigns against this ethno-religious minority are a recurring feature of their history. </p>
<p>Lately, the tally of atrocities has grown. This embattled minority is recovering from the 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-year-after-massacre-by-islamic-state-iraqs-yazidis-are-clinging-on-44494">pogroms</a> it endured at the hands of Islamic State (IS), which regards the Yazidis as apostates or “devil worshippers”, and the ongoing enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women and children within IS’s self-declared caliphate.</p>
<p>There are about 650,000 Yazidis in Iraq and as many as 2m in the wider diaspora. They forbid both the conversion of outsiders and the desertion of those born into the faith. Their creed combines elements of Sufism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, born at the geographical and theological crossroads of their historic homeland in northern Mesopotamia. </p>
<p>Claiming to follow the world’s oldest religion, they are essentially monotheistic but revere an array of angels, both good and malevolent. These beliefs have made them a particular target for jihadists.</p>
<p>As part of a broader effort to build an inclusive and responsive public institution of higher learning at Iraqi Kurdistan’s Soran University, we sought out Yazidi perspectives in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh and Soran. Throughout September 2015, we spoke with Yazidi survivors, laymen and clergy in northern Iraq about what the latest wave of persecution means for their faith.</p>
<h2>Prophecy fulfilled</h2>
<p>One refugee camp we visited on the outskirts of Rwanduz houses ten Yazidi families. The Kurdish Peshmerga and allied local militias have wrested control of their home villages, Sinûnê and Khana Sor, from IS forces, but it is still too dangerous for them to go home. </p>
<p>Regarding matters of religion, they express a chastened equanimity. After all, they say, the present suffering was prophesied.</p>
<p>The oldest man at the camp, Sado Elyas, put it this way: “A hundred years ago, the white-bearded elders (<em>kuchk</em>) foretold that the present generation would face an onslaught of persecution. They described the IS attack exactly: some Yazidis would escape to the mountain and later be rescued.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96780/original/image-20150930-5787-1ax9chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sado Elyas and Khalid Qasim discuss Yazidi prophecies at the refugee camp near Rwanduz, Iraqi Kurdistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tyler Fisher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The experience, he said, has reminded this community of the importance of their traditions: “Over time, people lost faith in the elders and viewed them as perpetually gloomy naysayers. The youth forgot them amid the distractions of new technologies. But what happened last year showed us that we need to listen again to the elders.”</p>
<p>His nephew, Khalid Qasim, added his own recollection of the prophecy, with a glimmer of hope: “The 100-year-old prophecy also said that circumstances for the Yazidis will deteriorate even further, but after <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/25/ISIS-destroys-tombs-of-two-prophets-in-Mosul.html">the destruction of Yunus’s (Jonah’s) tomb in Mosul</a>, the Yazidis’ situation will begin to improve.”</p>
<p>There is an air of fatalism in the reaction of these refugees to the terrible events of recent years. But while their heartache is all too apparent, the IS rampage has in fact renewed their confidence in their faith and their optimism for their community’s prospects.</p>
<h2>Rituals resumed</h2>
<p>On September 23, we joined a steady stream of barefoot pilgrims, young and old, at the valley of Lalish, the Yazidis’ most sacred site. The valley is a mere 30 miles from the front lines of the Islamic State, but the Yazidis defiantly observed their annual Éida Hejya, or Pilgrimage Festival, this year. Last year’s pilgrimage was cancelled due to the security situation and out of respect for the many in mourning. Wednesday, the Yazidis’ weekly holy day and the first day of Creation, marked the restoration of this rite. </p>
<p>The gathering in Lalish was deliberately low-key, subdued but not sombre. Pilgrims reverently kissed the primeval trees, which they trace back to Eden on this site, and knelt on the stones where they believe the scales of the Final Judgement will stand. </p>
<p>Yet they also skipped around the catafalque of their foremost saint, Sheikh Adi, made wishes by tossing handkerchiefs, and scattered sweets around freshly baptised toddlers.</p>
<p>The baptisms at the Kanîya Spî (White Spring) of Lalish are a striking demonstration of the Yazidis’ resolute hope and confidence concerning their ultimate survival as a people. While international headlines depict them as a culture on the brink of extinction, they perceive themselves as a nation divinely spared. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1104&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1104&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96292/original/image-20150926-17699-dx5k8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1104&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sheikh Dashti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tyler Fisher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Many empires have arisen and vanished, but we have remained,” Sheikh Dashti reflected in the shade of the shrine at Lalish. “Yazidis are created by God. We are God’s nation. We only rely on God to protect us. No matter how many persecutions are unleashed on us, we believe that we will be preserved, because we bear God’s name, as God’s nation.” </p>
<p>A priestly teacher among the Yazidis, Sheikh Dashti summarised in this way a doctrine from which Yazidis draw strength and reassurance. Indeed, it is fundamental to their identity. The name Yazidi itself derives from a phrase that points to the Creator: <em>Êz dî</em>, “the One who created me.” </p>
<h2>A brief sojourn</h2>
<p>Zêrê, a mother of eight, defied the odds and escaped from the province of Sinjar with all of her children. They now live as refugees in Dohuk and visited Lalish for the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>“I tell my children to look to the future, rather than focus on our present ordeal,” she told us. “I comfort them by reminding them that God is with us. God will protect them. Whatever happens, it is God’s will.” Her family hopes to return to their village when the forces of the Islamic State are decisively driven from the region.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96783/original/image-20150930-5798-o2s0f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Luqman Suliman explains Yazidi concepts of suffering to Tyler Fisher at the principal Yazidi shrine in Lalish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nahro Zagros</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By turning their hopes to a brighter future, ancient traditions, and transcendent designs, the Yazidis are reframing their suffering as a momentary tribulation. At Lalish, Luqman Suliman, a schoolteacher in nearby Sheikhan, cited a Yazidi proverb to express this: “For us, this world is a wayside inn. You are a visitor today; tomorrow you leave; other visitors will arrive.” </p>
<p>The cluster of shrines and sleeping quarters in the valley of Lalish is a vivid illustration of this philosophy. By custom, only one family resides at the site, while the surrounding apartments serve as temporary lodgings for pilgrims and other wayfarers. But in the months following the Sinjar massacres, refugee tents <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-yazidis-20141018-story.html">filled the courtyards and rooftops of the shrines</a>. </p>
<p>The tents folded as refugees acquired longer-term accommodation, and now the valley echoes again with murmured wishes and brief outbreaks of jubilation – proof that the Yazidis’ distinctive religion, which has made them a target for so much persecution, is also a source of profound resilience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Fisher serves on Soran University's Board of Advisers.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nahro Zagros does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>They’ve been persecuted for hundreds of years, and most recently by Islamic State – but the Yazidis now living in Iraq’s refugee camps are remarkably circumspect.Tyler Fisher, Lecturer in Peninsular Spanish Literary Studies, UCLNahro Zagros, Vice President, Soran UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/444942015-08-04T10:28:49Z2015-08-04T10:28:49ZA year after massacre by Islamic State, Iraq’s Yazidis are clinging on<p>When Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, <a href="https://theconversation.com/isis-sweeps-across-borders-and-takes-grip-of-an-iraq-collapsing-back-into-civil-war-27886">fell to Islamic State</a> (IS) in June 2014, the aspiring caliphate stepped up its campaign to expand and consolidate its control over the region. It did this in part by trying to exterminate the thinly protected enclaves of assorted ethnic and religious groups on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28351073">Nineveh Plains</a>. </p>
<p>This entailed a massive assault on the villages of the Sinjar district of northern Iraq, targeting an ethno-religious minority known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280">Yazidis</a>. The ensuing assault on Sinjar displaced roughly 200,000 civilians and forced almost 50,000 Yazidis to flee to the mountains. </p>
<p>IS set fire to Yazidi villages, obliterated their shrines with explosives, abducted women and children, and executed men who resisted conversion to Islam. Those Yazidis who escaped to the Sinjar Mountains found themselves besieged by IS forces. Eventually the Kurdish Peshmerga, People’s Protection Units (YPG), and Iraqi military, with support from US airstrikes and humanitarian airdrops, managed to get most of the refugees to camps in Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdish areas of Syria and Turkey.</p>
<p>Public attention has since moved on. The crisis in Sinjar is subsiding, and the Peshmerga have gradually retaken some of the areas that IS had overrun. But the atrocities are still a relentless daily reality for thousands of Yazidis still in captivity, for those in precarious refugee camps and for their relatives abroad, bereaved or longing to be reunited. </p>
<p>Several thousand remain in the mountains, cut off from humanitarian aid – and the threat of annihilation has not abated.</p>
<h2>Reliving history</h2>
<p>Among the groups of the complex Mesopotamian cultural mosaic, the Yazidis have always been particularly vulnerable to religious violence. While even the strictest interpretations of Islamic law permit a degree of tolerance for those the Koran calls “People of the Book” – those who adhere to Abrahamic faiths – the Yazidis fall outside this category. </p>
<p>As long ago as the mid-19th century, Sir Austen Henry Layard <a href="http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Nineveh_and_Its_Remains_v1_1000095232/323">reported</a> how the Yazidis fled from Ottoman raids, only to be massacred where they sought shelter: they “took refuge in caves, where they were either suffocated by fires lighted at the mouth, or destroyed by discharges of cannon”. </p>
<p>Today, IS considers the Yazidis pagan idolaters or “devil-worshippers”. Under its regime, a Christian resident of Mosul would face the choice of exile, conversion, or execution; a Yazidi would have only the latter two options. This is also the basis on which IS justifies <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/11/iraq-forced-marriage-conversion-yezidis">raping, enslaving, and trafficking Yazidi women and girls</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the impressions that reports from afar might give, IS’s violence is not indiscriminate. By targeting the Yazidis, IS stands not only to capture territory but to shore up its image as a judge of infidels, playing to the gallery of potential allies worldwide. And an especially vulnerable, especially hated sect makes a prime target.</p>
<p>The Yazidis’ situation clearly demands urgent action, but any intervention by the international community must allow the Yazidis to define themselves on their own terms. They have had other identities forced on them before, by turns making them invisible and labelling them as targets. </p>
<p>Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5982421/yazidis-yezidis-iraq-crisis-bombing">declared</a> the Yazidis Arab by ethnicity and their religion a sect of Sunni Islam. This was part of a massive push to Arabise Iraq that included forced resettlements and official disregard for the Yazidis’ distinct linguistic, ethnic, and religious culture. </p>
<p>Equally, labelling the Yazidis as a splinter group of Sunni Islam has exposed them to new dangers, since perceived apostates face even harsher persecution from radicals than “pagans” do.</p>
<h2>Getting out</h2>
<p>Today, things are very different. Yazidis are already being granted asylum in Europe and North America. Germany, which already has a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28725310">substantial Yazidi population</a>, recently <a href="http://www.jspacenews.com/op-ed-yazidis-forgotten-international-community/">agreed</a> to take in 1,000 refugees. </p>
<p>Armenia, too, has been a destination for Yazidi emigrants for generations. A new Yazidi temple is <a href="http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/07/23/new-yezidi-temple-to-be-built-in-armenia/">due to be built there</a>, and Armenia’s <a href="http://ezidipress.com/en/new-armenian-draft-constitution-to-include-quota-for-yezidis/">draft constitution might pave the way for proportional representation</a> for the 40,000 Yazidis that now reside within its borders. This has all the hallmarks of a sustainable home away from their ancestral home.</p>
<p>But despite these encouraging steps, prospects abroad are grim for the Yazidis. We spoke to Dawud Khetari, a Yazidi historian from the Sheikhan region of northern Iraq, who managed only the weakest hint of optimism: “Yes, we will preserve our culture, but it will not be the same. We will lose our language. We will lose our traditions when far away from the burial grounds and pilgrimage sites.” </p>
<p>The Yazidis’ ancestral lands in Iraq, which include a sacred spring and valley, mausoleums and shrines, are vital for their continuity. Protecting these sites is no small task. One measure would be to secure the most significant holy sites in the Sinjar and Sheikhan regions to protect pilgrimages and traditional learning. Kerim Suleman, formerly a spiritual leader within the Yazidi community and currently director of the Lalish Cultural Centre in Dohuk, told us that: “we need a wall. We need boots on the ground, an international peacekeeping force.”</p>
<p>That may seem far-fetched, but it’s hardly unprecedented. A force protecting it could resemble the international <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/09/iraq-shiite-leaders-pan-shiite-project.html">militias</a> that are currently mobilising to protect Shia shrines from IS, or the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29843876">co-operative security</a> at Jerusalem’s holy sites.</p>
<h2>Down, not out</h2>
<p>In one sense, the assaults by IS are nothing new for the Yazidis, but the advanced weaponry that IS captured in Mosul and then unleashed on Yazidi villages meant the scale of the 2014 attacks was far worse than anything seen before. </p>
<p>But on the flip side, advanced military technology greatly assisted the rescue of Yazidis from Mount Sinjar. Advanced communication meant the world was aware of the attacks as they unfolded; it may yet help the scattered Yazidis to organise across the diaspora. And advanced security and surveillance capacities could preserve the sites the Yazidis hold most sacred. </p>
<p>The outside world might never know the full extent of the atrocities inflicted on the Yazidis in the past year, and no single remedy will be fully effective or fully satisfactory. Still, we can begin to repair the damage. Even in the face of genocide, this resilient community can once again defy the odds – if it only gets the help it needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Fisher serves on Soran University's Board of Advisers.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muslih Mustafa and Nahro Zagros do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Persecuted for generations, the Yazidis have weathered their latest storm with astonishing resolve.Tyler Fisher, Lecturer in Peninsular Spanish Literary Studies, UCLMuslih Mustafa, President, Soran UniversityNahro Zagros, Vice President, Soran UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/367442015-01-28T12:08:54Z2015-01-28T12:08:54ZKurds turn the tide against Islamic State in Kobanê<p>On the evening of January 27, Kurds celebrated the liberation of Kobanê from the Islamic State (IS) siege. The celebrations started after the Kurdish fighters of the People’s Defence Units (YPG) and Women’s Defence Units (YPJ) declared that all parts of the town were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30991612">free from IS control</a>. </p>
<p>IS is still very much present in more than 300 villages surrounding Kobanê, and the fight to drive it out completely is expected to last a long time. But, in spite of the ongoing uncertainty, clearing IS out of Kobanê feels like a major victory and marks an end to the momentum it has been building over the past few months. </p>
<p>The threat of an IS victory in Kobanê put a terrible emotional stress on the Kurds across the region – and it is not surprising to see that they are reacting to the town’s liberation with such jubilation. </p>
<h2>Joint effort</h2>
<p>The biggest burden in ending the Kobanê siege was shouldered by the YPG and YPJ fighters but their task was eased by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kobane-resists-islamic-state-but-turkey-still-cant-get-the-kurdish-question-right-33701">support received</a> from the Peshmergas of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Free Syria Army units and coalition airstrikes. </p>
<p>The victory comes on the back of the recent <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/iraqi-kurds-push-into-sinjar-after-islamic-state-occupation-1419165717">Kurdish advances in the Sinjar area</a> in Iraq – the historic home to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280">Yazidi Kurds</a> – which has been under IS control since early August 2014. </p>
<p>The gains in Kobanê and Sinjar make the Kurdish forces more confident that their final victory against the IS is a case of when rather than if. It also shows the international efforts to defeat IS are beginning to be successful on the ground. </p>
<p>But IS’s ability to carry out surprise attacks means it is not inconceivable to see both Kobanê and Sinjar coming under large-scale offensives in coming days and months. In fact, the IS presence in the vicinity of Kurdish populated areas and their operational capability makes it highly likely that such an attack will take place. </p>
<h2>Regional implications</h2>
<p>The prominence that Kurds are gaining in the fight against IS is likely to translate into more influence. In Syria, the Kurds offer a secular and democratic alternative – but, for their vision to be realised, they need to navigate their ways through uncertain times. Recent Kurdish gains can propel them to assume a bigger role in the fight against jihadist and regime forces. The recent <a href="http://syriahr.com/en/2015/01/17-members-of-ypg-al-asayesh-and-regime-forces-died-and-ypg-and-al-asyaesh-advance-in-some-areas-in-the-countryside-of-al-hasakah/">attacks against Kurdish positions</a> in al-Hasakah can be seen as a warning by the regime forces against the Kurds. </p>
<p>The siege put a lot of pressure on Turkey’s relations with Kurds – and on the nascent peace process. While so far the peace process has survived, the tensions generated by widespread protests held on October 7-9 2014 shows how vulnerable Turkey’s fragile peace process is to regional developments. </p>
<p>For Turkey, calculations of the impact of the Kurds’ rise in the region are complex. What they <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/11/24/turkey-the-islamic-state-and-the-kurdistan-liberation-movement/">seek to avoid</a> is the consolidation of Kurdish autonomous entities in Syria and to Turkey’s southern border. A recent <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pm-davutoglu-wants-a-new-middle-east-for-turks-kurds-arabs.aspx?PageID=238&NID=77427&NewsCatID=338">speech by the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu</a>, in Diyarbakır seems to indicate a softening of attitudes. </p>
<p>However, it is worth remembering that previous AKP (Justice and Development Party) governments have made statements that raised hope among the Kurds on many occasions but ultimately bore very little fruit. It is also worth bearing in mind that Davutoğlu, in a recent interview with a German newspaper, said that the possible establishment of a Kurdish state in the Middle East would “<a href="endanger%20the%20region%20and%20turn%20it%20into%20chaos">endanger the region and turn it into chaos</a>”. </p>
<h2>Kurds’ rights must be recognised</h2>
<p>The international anti-IS coalition <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30928114">met on January 23 in London</a> to evaluate the actions being taken against the IS. The Kurds were not present and the president of Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, reacted by <a href="http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/23012015">publicly expressing his disappointment</a> that a Kurdish delegation was not invited. This is an indication of the Kurds’ rising expectations regarding the level of international recognition they expect to enjoy. </p>
<p>The involvement of the representatives of Syrian Kurds in <a href="http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/01/25/syrian-opposition-leaders-reach-agreement-cairo/">recent meetings held in Cairo</a> and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/26/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-idUSKBN0KZ10D20150126">Moscow</a> to bring various Syrian opposition movements closer shows their genuine efforts to be part of a broader coalition. Such efforts are likely to add to the Kurds’ growing international legitimacy and can pave the way for more support, which will facilitate accommodating Kurdish rights and demands in post-conflict Syria. </p>
<p>The engagement that the international powers cultivated with Kurdish forces from Iraq and Syria in the fight against IS needs to lead to forging a closer relationship to ensure that the goal of sustainable peace building in the region is realised. </p>
<p>International powers need to contribute to building a new regional level consensus regarding the accommodation of Kurdish rights and demands in the Middle East. This is essential for sustainable peace in the long run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cengiz Gunes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On the evening of January 27, Kurds celebrated the liberation of Kobanê from the Islamic State (IS) siege. The celebrations started after the Kurdish fighters of the People’s Defence Units (YPG) and Women’s…Cengiz Gunes, Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Social Science, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/305722014-08-15T11:55:35Z2014-08-15T11:55:35ZKurds face challenge of unity in face of Islamic State assault<p>As the Islamic State (IS) continues to gain ground, it is largely Kurdish territory that they are taking in northwestern Iraq. One result of the conflict has been to bring close military co-operation between Kurds across state boundaries. </p>
<p>From Iraq, there are the Peshmerga forces; from Syria, the People’s Defence Units (YPG) and from Turkey, guerrilla fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Their joint efforts, with the aid of the targeted air strikes by the US Air Force, have managed to halt IS advances and <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/11/a_kurdish_comeback_iraq_erbil_peshmerga">regain the control of the towns of Makhmour and Gwer</a>. </p>
<p>In the days ahead, as the momentum of the fight against the IS in Iraq and Syria gathers pace, the Kurds will be at the forefront. But doubts remain whether the Kurdish forces will be effective and whether they can sustain unity in the face of this serious challenge.</p>
<h2>IS vs the Kurds</h2>
<p>It has been reported that as many as 500 <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280">Yazidis</a> were killed by the jihadists and 300 Yazidi women have been <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/10/us-iraq-security-yazidis-killings-idUSKBN0GA0FF20140810">taken as slaves</a>. Tens of thousands of Yazidis have been displaced, with many taking refuge on Mount Sinjar. Numbers have now been escorted to safety in Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/12/syrian-kurdish-fighters-rescuing-stranded-yazidis/">by the YPG fighters</a>. </p>
<p>As the plight of the Yazidis shows, the Kurdish population in Syria and Iraq is one of the main targets of IS violence. As the state they seek to carve out in Syria and Iraq includes large parts of Kurdish territory, we can expect the violence to continue, if not intensify.</p>
<h2>In need of support</h2>
<p>The Kurds’ ability to defeat the IS will largely depend on the arrival of more effective weapons and ammunition, as has been <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kurds-need-us-help-to-prevent-islamic-state-horrors/2014/08/10/e25e4990-20a2-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html">voiced by the president of Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani</a>. The retreat of Peshmerga forces in the face of initial attacks can be put down to the superiority of the weapons IS captured from the Iraqi army in June 2014, as well as the Peshmerga’s limited combat experience.</p>
<p>So, the Kurds will welcome the consensus that slowly <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/britain-ready-supply-weapons-kurdish-forces-iraq-isis">seems to be emerging</a> in the West to supply them directly with weapons.</p>
<h2>Co-ordinating efforts</h2>
<p>In addition to the arrival of better weapons and more ammunition, Kurdish prospects in the conflict with IS depend also on whether closer co-operation and co-ordination between different Kurdish forces will be maintained. Currently, the Peshmerga forces do not have very effective command structures, with party loyalties to either the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) or the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) still prevailing among the fighters, which is <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/why-the-kurdish-peshmerga-have-many-troubles-in-stopping-the-islamic-state">proving to be a major weakness</a>. </p>
<p>The involvement of the YPG forces, who are generally considered as the PKK’s branch in Syria further complicates the situation on the ground, as does the arrival of the PKK guerrillas. Nonetheless, numbering around 50,000 fighters, the YPG is a significant force and is so far proving to be effective against the IS who it has also <a href="http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/isis-attacks-on-kobane-and-ypg-respnse/170-isis-attacks-on-kobane-and-ypg-respnse.html">been fighting in Syria</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, with years of combat experience gained fighting against the Turkish army, the PKK guerrillas are also proving to be effective fighters and took a leading role in the <a href="http://www.kurdpress.ir/En/NSite/FullStory/News/?Id=8072#Title=%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09%09Massoud%20Barzani%20visits%20PKK%20forces%20in%20Makhmour%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09">recapture of Makhmour</a>. The PKK’s involvement, however, could potentially sway US or European attitudes against arming the Kurds given it remains listed as a terrorist organisation in many western countries. Also, how Turkey will react to the PKK’s involvement remains to be seen, but it is likely to be viewed with growing concern.</p>
<h2>Kurdish unity</h2>
<p>Intra-Kurdish relations have not always been cordial. In the past year, the Syrian Kurdish PYD has accused the Iraqi Kurdistan Region of imposing a trade blockade on the Kurds in Syria. The PKK in Turkey has on numerous occasions criticised the Iraqi Kurdish authorities for their unwillingness to help Kurds in Syria. The PYD in turn was accused of suppressing other Kurdish political parties in Syria, such as those allied to the KDP. </p>
<p>Last year, representatives of Kurdish political movements from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey met in Erbil to take steps to convene a Kurdish National Congress. Eventually their efforts were abandoned in the face of major differences. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the possible emergence of the Kurds as a significant regional actor depends on their ability to forge a common Kurdish position. This requires a higher degree of political unity amongst the various movements than currently exists. But the need for unity in fighting IS will no doubt help forge trust between them, as their survival calls for closer co-operation. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cengiz Gunes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the Islamic State (IS) continues to gain ground, it is largely Kurdish territory that they are taking in northwestern Iraq. One result of the conflict has been to bring close military co-operation between…Cengiz Gunes, Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Social Science, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/302802014-08-08T14:38:37Z2014-08-08T14:38:37ZExplainer: who are the Yazidis?<p>Nadia Murad has <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-to-nadia-murad-and-denis-mukwege-for-campaigns-against-sexual-violence-104494">won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize</a> with Denis Mukwege for their work in trying to end sexual violence during war. Murad’s advocacy came after suffering persecution as a Yazidi, a religious minority in Iraq.</p>
<p>But who are the Yazidis and how have they been persecuted over the years?
In 1918, the Yazidis of Sinjar mountain received an ultimatum from Ottoman forces – to hand over their weaponry and the Christian refugees they were sheltering, or face the consequences. They tore it up and sent the messengers back naked. </p>
<p>The Sinjaris are the “Highlanders” of the Iraqi Yazidis – tough and proud. After suffering terrible casualties and appealing to the allied forces for help they were able to survive the subsequent attack and live out the war in their mountain homeland.</p>
<p>But 100 years on, even these proud warriors are not immune to modern weaponry and face yet another threat of genocide as the bloodthirsty militias of the Islamic State threaten to wipe them out.</p>
<p>Those <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/40000-iraqis-stranded-mountain-isis-death-threat">stranded on the mountain</a> would rather face death there than the forced conversion and massacre which the Islamic State routinely gives those Yazidis it captures. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/islamic-state-accused-of-capturing-yazidi-women-and-forcing-them-to-convert-or-else/2014/08/07/5e6080ba-1e70-11e4-9b6c-12e30cbe86a3_story.html">reports come in</a> of Yazidi villages in Shikhan, on the fringes of the Kurdish region, being abandoned, of Kurdish cities crowded with refugees, of huge queues at the Turkish border. A shocked world is asking: who are these people and why are they so scared?</p>
<h2>Seven angels</h2>
<p>Like all religions, Yazidism can’t be explained in a sentence, but it has two key characteristics that can help us understand it. Firstly, there is a belief that divine beings (the “Seven Angels”) can reincarnate themselves in human form, most recently in the ancestors of their leading religious clans. </p>
<p>These people are called by the Arabic word “khas”. Saints and prophets from other religions – among them Jesus from the Christian faith and, <a href="http://sunnahonline.com/library/biographies/365-al-hasan-al-basri">Hasan al-Basri</a>, the companion of Mohammed – have been claimed as “khas”. And since God is a remote figure, it is the chief of the Holy Beings, the Peacock Angel, who rules the world. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56050/original/f9npwj25-1407484064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme being: the Peacock Angel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.greatdreams.com/blog/dee-blog60.html">Dee Finney</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yazidism also has a strong preoccupation with purity in all areas of life. Different categories should not be mixed; thus certain foods are forbidden and Yazidis are not allowed to marry outsiders. </p>
<p>Yazidi society is divided into castes: sheikhs, pirs and murids – who must marry among themselves. Modern Yazidis are no longer ostracised for living outside the community, but still like to live close to each other. </p>
<p>In Ottoman times they flatly refused to join the army and serve alongside Muslims (to the great chagrin of the government), though they have usually lived in harmony with Christians. Their taboo against reading and writing probably came about from a reluctance to attend school alongside others.</p>
<h2>Exotic, bizarre and strange</h2>
<p>Some have made much of the Yazidis’ “exotic” customs, “bizarre” myths and “strange” taboos. But these make perfect sense in a rural community using oral tradition. </p>
<p>Thus Yazidis would not tolerate the word “Satan” (which is often used by others to insult the Peacock Angel) or even any words that sounded like it. Their famous ban on eating lettuce can be explained by the fact that the Kurdish word for lettuce happens to be “khas”, which the Yazidis use to denote their saints. Over the years such customs have been ridiculed to belittle and promote hostility towards Yazidis.</p>
<h2>Seventy-two persecutions</h2>
<p>Yazidism, as we know it today, began in the 12th century, when the Muslim sheikh <a href="http://understanding-our-past.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/yazidism.html">‘Adi bin Musafir</a> settled in the Kurdich hills north of Mosul, where he was acclaimed as a “khas” by locals who followed an older religion from Iran, the origins of which are still debated. </p>
<p>Yazidism at first expanded, stretching from Syria across northern Iraq and eastern Turkey, but by the 18th century a long decline had set in and what Yazidis call their “<a href="http://www.yeziditruth.org/yezidi_genocide">seventy-two persecutions</a>” had begun. The Kurdish word they use is from the Ottoman word for “decree” which helps to explain the official nature of many of these persecutions. </p>
<p>Visitors to Kurdistan are often shown the spectacular gorge called Geli Ali Beg, but not all of them learn that it is named after a Yazidi leader killed in 1832 by the Kurdish “Blind Prince” of Rawanduz. Unlike Jews and Christians, Ottoman Yezidis were not protected as “People of the Book” and were the regular victims of pogrom. </p>
<p>Under British diplomatic pressure, they were <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S5mRxprCL9MC&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=yazidi+given+some+legal+status+in+1849&source=bl&ots=FiGs3TUUrI&sig=S17VQLXzPyUy4heBF6lrIEEP6Ys&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KpTkU8OcNofG7Aa-64C4Bw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=yazidi%20given%20some%20legal%20status%20in%201849&f=false">given some legal status under Ottoman law in 1849</a>, but that did not protect them from disaster in 1892, when Omar Vebi Pasha, an official sent by Istanbul, launched a “convert-or-die” campaign against them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56053/original/vw935kh8-1407484805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Natural beauty and religious significance: Geli Ali Beg waterfall in Kurdistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ara Qadir</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Sinjaris repelled the army’s attacks, but in the agricultural villages of Sheikhan many women and children were massacred. The Yazidis’ holiest <a href="http://www.kurdishglobe.net/article/5DE14E1904CB3D6D8EA7E91A70162FE6/Discovering-Lalesh-the-Yezidi-shrine.html">shrine of Lalesh</a> was appropriated as an Islamic property and the unfortunate Yazidi prince converted to Islam under duress. </p>
<p>Such were the formative experiences of Iraq’s Yazidis as they entered World War I. During the 20th century, Yazidis have often been active in the Kurdish nationalist movement and were a particular target – along with the Kurds – of Saddam Hussein’s Arabisation policies. This is despite the fact that they were already officially classed as Arabs. </p>
<p>It is hardly surprising that so many now want to leave Iraq and there are Yazidi communities elsewhere, particularly in Europe, Russia, Syria and Turkey. But Yazidism is so closely linked to its land that any rupture of that link might well be catastrophic for its survival. Sinjar and Sheikhan, all that remain of the heartland of this ancient religion, must be kept safe for Yazidism to survive as it adapts to the challenges of the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Allison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Yazidi people have faced persecution and sexual violence. Here is their story.Christine Allison, Ibrahim Ahmed Professor of Kurdish Studies, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.