Country: Syria

Group: Yazidi

Date: 10/19/2022

Team: Isabella Boker (lead), Gabriel Cardenas, Ash Pessaran, Erin Fagan, Amaya Tanhueco, Hannah Lux

Content Warnings Sexual violence, sexual slavery, physical violence, genocide, violence on kids, violence on women

Approximate Time Period: 2014-Present

The Yazidis are ethnically Kurdish and religiously distinct from the majority population in Syria.  They follow Yezidism, a religion combining Christianity, Islam, and other elements (bassamalahmed, 2022; Kolstad, 2018). They are native to Kurdistan, a region that covers areas of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, yet most of the Yazidi population currently resides in Iraq. Today, the Yazidis face unprecedented violence and religious persecution due to their belief in Yazidism (Allison, 2017). Yet, Yazidi history states that seventy two firmans (acts of genocide) occurred throughout history. As of 2014, the number rose to seventy four (Ali, 2019). In that same year, ISIS or ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Syria)) launched multiple attacks in neighboring Iraq, killing around 5,000 Yazidi men and women (Genocide Studies Program, 2020). Although the attacks against the group began in Iraq, sources variously describe acts of violence occurring simultaneously between the borders of Syria and Iraq. While the Yazidi men faced death at the hands of religious persecution, “Women and girls were separated from their families and forcefully given or sold to other fighters in Iraq and Syria” (Minority Rights Group International, 2015; Abdulah et al., 2022).

As of 2016, the UN Human Rights Council confers that the genocide continues where “Over 3,200 Yazidi women and children are still held by ISIS.” Syria continues to hold Yazidi boys hostage, training and indoctrinating them to fight for ISIS while women and young girls face countless acts of sexual violence (UN Human Rights Council, 2016). As of 2019, Turkish forces supported various extremist groups that carried out ethnic cleansing (Durbin, 2020). The data quality is a 3 given there is ample evidence on the Yazidi genocide and history of persecution and violence.

Sources

  1. Abdulah, D. M., Abdulla, B. M. O., & Liamputtong, P. (2022). The lived experience of surviving from the Islamic State attack and capture in Iraq and Syria: An arts-based qualitative study with Yazidi young women. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 00207640211068981. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211068981
  2. Ali, M. H. (2019). Genocidal Campaigns during the Ottoman Era: The Firmān of Mīr-i-Kura against the Yazidi Religious Minority in 1832–1834. Genocide Studies International, 13(1), 77–91. https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi.13.1.05
  3. Allison, C. (2017). The Yazidis. In C. Allison, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.254
  4. Bassamalahmed. (2022, September 5). Yazidis in Syria: Decades of Denial of Existence and Discrimination. Syrians for Truth and Justice.
  5. Durbin, A. S. (2020, July 10). Turkey waging war against Kurds and Yazidi genocide survivors. Jewish World Watch. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://jww.org/site/turkey-kurds-yazidis/
  6. Iraq/Yazidi | Genocide Studies Program. (2020). Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://stj-sy.org/en/yazidis-in-syria-decades-of-denial-of-existence-and-discrimination/
  7. Refugees, U. N. H. C. for. (2016). Refworld | “They came to destroy”: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis. Retrieved October 11, 2022, fromhttps://www.refworld.org/docid/57679c324.html
  8. Minority Rights Group (2015, June 19). Minority Rights Syria—World Directory of Minorities & Indigenous Peoples  https://minorityrights.org/country/syria/