Country: Iraq

Group: Kaka’i

Date Finalized: September 23, 2021

Team: Mason McNeel (lead), Hannah Goldman, Jocelyn Chen

Content Warning: religious persecution; child abduction; lethal violence

Approximate Time Period: 1979-present

The Kaka’i people number between 110,000 and 200,000 in Iraq, and practice a religion that mixes elements of Shia Islam with Zoroastrianism, the oldest monothestic religion (Minority Rights Group 2017; Abdulqadir, 2021). In the past, Kaka’I were predominantly wealthy landowners, but they have faced frequent discrimination in recent times. During his rule in Iraq from 1979-2003, Saddam Hussein’s regime practiced “Arabization” which forced Kaka’i people from their homes, destroyed their land, and exiled them to other countries (Saddam Hussein, n.d.;Minority Rights Group,2017). Between 2003 and present day, different groups of extremist Islamic militants have targeted the Kaka’is due to their religious beliefs (Human Rights Watch, 2003). ISIS is currently the main persecutor of the Kaka’i, and their refusal to adopt the religious practices enforced by ISIS typically results in child abduction, destruction of places of worship, and executions (Ahmed, 2020). The violence of ISIS and other militant Islamic groups has caused more than 20,000 Kaka’i individuals to flee to other locations in Iraq. An additional 10,000 Kaka’i have fled to refugee camps in Kurdistan (Hosseini, 2018).

Our team rated the quality of data for forced displacement of Kaka’I as 3/3.

Sources

  1. Abdulqadir, Z. (2021). The cultural diversity of contemporary Iraq in the light of security threats and conflicts between its components. Journal of Scientific Papers “Social Development and Security”, 11(3), 72–78. https://doi.org/10.33445/sds.2021.11.3.7
  2. Ahmed, Z. R. (2020). The Future of Minorities in Post-ISIL Iraq. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.26750/Vol(8).No(1).Paper12
  3. Hosseini, S. (2018). The Kaka‘i: A Religious Minority in Iraq. Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 5(2), 156–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/2347798918762200
  4. Human Rights Watch. “Iraqi Kurdistan: Human Rights Abuses Committed by Ansar al-Islam”. (2003, February 5). Human Rights Watch.
  5. Minority Rights Group. 2017. Kaka’i. (2017, November 29). Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/kakai/
  6. Encyclopedia Britannica. Saddam Hussein | Biography, History, Death, Sons, & Facts. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein