The Yazidis: a sect persecuted throughout history

THE 40 000 Iraqis stranded on a mountain and facing possible genocide at the hands of surrounding Islamic State fighters are the last surviving community in their ancestral homeland of the Yazidis, long misunderstood by the outside world as “devil-worshippers”.

One of the most persecuted minorities in the Middle East, the Yazidis have kept their ancient religion alive despite centuries of oppression.

The Yazidis mark themselves as different. They never wear the colour blue. Many of the men wear their hair in long plaits, much like Asterix and Obelix.

They believe one of their holy books, the Black Book, was stolen by the British in colonial times and is being kept somewhere in London.

But in their home town of Sinjar, from where they have now fled to the mountains above, they were welcoming in a way that belied their fearsome reputation as Satanists.

The misidentification came about because they worship a fallen angel, the Malek Tawwus, or Peacock Angel. But, unlike Lucifer, the Yazidis’ fallen angel was forgiven by God and restored to heaven.

Their religion is not just an offshoot of Christianity or Islam. They do not believe in heaven or hell, but in reincarnation.

They have kept their religion alive through the “Talkers”, men who are taught the entire text of their missing holy book by memory as children and who, in turn, pass it on to their own sons.

The Yazidis once lived in a wide area across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. But, driven from their homelands, most have fled to Australia, Canada and Germany. Against all the odds, Iraq is the one place in the Middle East where a sizeable community remains.

They have also been persecuted for their ethnicity. In Turkey, they faced double discrimination as both nonMuslims and Kurds and were forced to carry identity cards.

In Georgia and Armenia, they fell foul of nationalist movements after the fall of the Soviets.

The Yazidis speak Kurdish — claiming theirs is ancient Kurdish — but they have a troubled history with their Kurdish neighbours.

They do not practise arranged marriage like other communities in the region. They have a formal system of elopement, whereby a man must “kidnap” his bride. If the woman is willing, the parents have to accept the match.

There are darker sides to the Yazidis.

They have a tradition of killing any of their members who leave the religion. In 2007, it was reported that Du’a Khalil Aswad, a Yazidi woman, was stoned to death for converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man.

The Yazidis say they have survived 72 genocides.

Now there are fears that their last community in the Middle East is facing another. —©