Yazidis

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.
 An ISIS member carries an Islamic State flag in Syria.

Thousands of ISIS-linked women, children still held in Syria’s camps amid escape efforts - analysis

 Members of Syrian security forces ride on a back of a truck after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025.

Israel's decisive Syria strikes highlight need for intervention in preventing genocides - analysis

 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


Eastern Syria defeated ISIS but has been given no coronavirus test kits

The region lacks an ability to test for coronavirus and does not have the hospital capacity to deal with a new crisis.

A health worker tests a man as part of security measures to avoid the spread of coronavirus, at the Bab el-Salam border crossing between the Syrian town of Azaz and the Turkish town of Kilis, seen from Syria

Turkey’s war on Kurds and the fate of the European project

While European leaders pay lip service to the sacrifices of Kurdish forces, they refuse to stop Erdogan while simultaneously stressing the need for Kurds to continue fighting on the West's behalf.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks at Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Turkey, October 7, 2019

Yazidi woman kept as sex slave by ISIS confronts her rapist

"Do you have feelings? Do you have honor? I was 14 years old, as old as your daughter, your son, or your sister. You destroyed my life."

Screenshot of Ashwaq Haji Hamid confronting her rapist Abu Humam on a report from Al-Iraqiya Network, translated by MEMRI.

When ethnic or religious persecution comes...

Jews around the world are seeing an upsurge in antisemitism not at all unlike its development in Europe and Iraq in the 1920s and 30s.

The statue of an Iraqi torturer whipping a victim with an electrical cable

Saturday people, Sunday people and the ‘Mohammadian army’

“In his tweets in Turkish and Arabic, however, Erdogan described his forces as ‘the heroes of the Mohammadian army’ – a term dating back to the Ottoman Empire,” the report continued.

Iron Dome anti-missile system fires interception missiles as rockets are launched from Gaza towards Israel

Kristallnacht, ISIS and today’s crisis in Syria

I am not an expert on the Holocaust, but I have spent time among many Yazidi survivors of ISIS and its crimes.

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 bombs Sinjar villages in Iraq where genocide survivors live

Three were injured in the airstrike on Tuesday, the third airstrike in two days.

A general view of the Yazidi refugee camp on Mount Sinjar

We must not grow numb to the Yazidi genocide

Despite centuries of persecution, the Yazidis have never forsaken their faith, which only attests to their remarkable sense of identity and strength of character.

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

Concentration of ISIS supporters in Syrian camp created hell-hole and threat

More than 50,000 men and women from all over the world joined ISIS. This included 5,000 supporters from European countries.

Women walk through al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria April 1, 2019

My Word: Jihadi brides and forgotten victims

Compassion should not override common sense.

Yazidi women attend a ceremony on International Women Day, March 8, at Lilash Temple in Iraqi Kurdistan to commemorate female ISIS victims.