A Community That Has Survived Genocide in Living Memory

Yazidis have faced severe and repeated historical persecution, most recently and catastrophically the 2014 attack by the Islamic State group in Iraq, an atrocity the United Nations and other bodies have formally recognized as genocide, which included mass killing, enslavement and displacement of Yazidi communities and has profoundly affected how Yazidi religious and cultural institutions today approach questions of documentation, outside representation and protection of their own religious heritage from further harm or exploitation.

Given this immediate and severe historical context, alongside the tradition's longstanding preference for oral, community-controlled transmission of its qewls and other sacred material, this entry treats respecting Yazidi religious authorities' own judgment about what should be shared outside the community as especially important, and limits itself to recording Yazidism's general character and the specific and serious history that shapes its approach to outside documentation, rather than attempting to describe or summarize specific hymns or ritual content. Yazidi communities and diaspora organizations formed after 2014 have worked extensively with international bodies on documentation, legal accountability and cultural preservation efforts, work generally led by Yazidi organizations and representatives themselves rather than by outside researchers acting independently of community guidance.