Country: Iraq

Group: Yazidi

Date Finalized: 11/23/2021

Team:  Deneb Bobadilla (lead), Hannah Goldman, Johanna McCombs, Nuri Son, and Li-Chen Hou

Content Warning: Sexual assault

The Yazidis are a religious minority group that has experienced ethnocide in Iran. The data quality is a 3 because of the availability of published sources as evidence.

            The formation of Iraq began a period of attempts from British and Iraqi powers to control Yazidi territory (Minority Rights Group, 2017). Arabization initiated under the Ba’ath regime, imposed Arab identity on Yazidi culture in order to establish complete political control (Minority Rights Group, 2017). As some Yazidi chose to self-identify as Arab,  others identified themselves as Kurds instead of Yazidi. Arabization and pressures from the Islamic militia groups to marry outside their religion, especially with the Kurdish, has also prompted their forced assimilation and the renunciation of their faith (Minority Rights Group, 2017).  In March 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, the Islamic state often interpreted the Yazidi religion as a threat, which led to their extreme persecution (Minority Rights Group, 2017). ISIS had captured Yezidi boys and forced them to become indoctrinated into the group and enlist in the military. Even after forcibly abandoning their beliefs, these boys faced intensive counseling to reintegrate into the Yezidi community and incorporate themselves into the extremist group (Minority Rights 2017). Sexual assault is also considered a form of ethnocide because of the intentions “of the Islamic State to terrorize, demoralize, humiliate, and dehumanize a minority,” which in this case are the Yazidi (Abouelnaga, 2020). The targeted killing and sexual assault of Yazidi women in particular have reduced their identity to their body because of ISIS’ efforts to completely oppress this ethnic group and emphasize their existence as a minority (Abouelnaga, 2020).

Sources

  1. Abouelnaga, S. (2020). The Minoritized Yazidi Body as a Signifier. Middle East Topic and Arguments, 13–22.
  2. Minority Rights Group. (2017, November). Yezidis. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/yezidis/.