Yazidi

From forced conversion to genocide: How Yazidis carry centuries of persecution into exile

MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS: The Islamic interpretation of the Yazidi faith is what members of ISIS used to justify the enslavement of over 6,000 women and children and the murder of more than 5,000 people.

A Yazidi woman holds a flame during the Charshama Sor Red New Year ceremony at the Lalish temple in Iraq in April. For a community repeatedly driven from its ancestral homes and subjected to forced conversions, religious tradition has become an enduring expression of survival and continuity.
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (L) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) signing a deal to end the war between their two groups, March 2025.

Syrian President Sharaa hosts Kurdish SDF leaders to talk integration

 Yazidi refugees stand behind fences as they wait for the arrival of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie at a Syrian and Iraqi refugee camp in the southern Turkish town of Midyat in Mardin province, Turkey, June 20, 2015.

Where are the missing Yazidis? Thousands still held captive after ISIS attacks

A gavel and a block is pictured on the judge's bench in this illustration picture taken in the Sussex County Court of Chancery in Georgetown, Delaware, U.S., June 9, 2021.

Sweden sentences woman to 12 years in prison for genocide, war crimes in Syria


Dr. Nemam Ghafouri, activist who helped Yazidis in Iraq, Syria passes away

Everyone knew her. News of her death has case a shadow over many who worked quietly raising awareness about suffering of minorities across northern Iraq and Syria.

Dr. Nemam Ghafouri delivering humanitarian aid.

A secret operation to reunite Yazidi women and children after genocide

The secret operation in Iraq and Syria to help Yazidi women be reunited with children they had during captivity under ISIS was reported by the New York Times this week.

A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

Middle East needs to learn lessons from the Holocaust - opinion

One lesson is for sure: We must never see the unnecessary and brutal, inhumane deaths of millions of innocent human beings again. But we continue to, across the region, from the Kurds to the Yazidis.

Thikran Kamiran Yousif, 22, visits his father's grave in Kojo, Iraq February 7, 2021.

Yazidis denounce Syrian ruling requiring them to follow Islamic law

Members of religious minority reportedly requested their own court for personal issues, say their faith is thousands of years old.

Mourners stand next to the coffins with the remains of people from the Yazidi minority, who were killed by Islamic State militants, after they were exhumed from a mass grave, to bury them in Kojo, Iraq February 6, 2021.

Yazidis' region is in Turkey and Iran’s crosshairs after genocide

Warmongering from Ankara appears to be in line with its need to keep attacking Iraq and Syria using “fighting terrorism” as an excuse.

A view of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of displaced Yazidis continue to live in displacement camps

Yazidis mourn genocide victims after bodies identified

It is believed almost 3,000 Yazidis are still missing.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Yazidi activist Nadia Murad talks to people during her visit to Sinjar, Iraq December 14, 2018.

For Iraq's persecuted Yazidis, return plan is fraught with risk

The Yazidis have suffered since IS marauded into Sinjar in 2014, one of the Sunni extremist group's conquests that shocked the West into military action to stop it.

A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

The world is continuing to ignore the sufferings of the Yazidis

No government is willing to step forward to help them rebuild their destroyed villages, not even their own governments.

A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

Turkey’s occupation of Syria slammed for ethnic cleansing

The testimony now now makes it appears that US officials ignored the ethnic cleansing and harm to minorities in Syria.

A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

Yazidi girls sold as sex slaves create choir to find healing

The choir has sung at Westminster Abbey and will perform at the Houses of Parliament and in front of Prince Charles.

Yazidi's women attend a ceremony at Lilash Temple to commemorate the death of women who were killed by Islamic State militants, during the International Women Day, in Shikhan north of Iraq March 8, 2019