Ten Years of Suffering: Reflecting on the Ongoing Yazidi Genocide (2014-2024)
A Manovill Institute Alum Recounts the Beginning of the Yazidi Genocide and the Persistent Struggles of the Yazidi People a Decade Later
By Seth Eislund, 2017 Manovill Institute graduate, Founder of Yazidi Genocide Archive
On August 3rd, 2014, Barakat was terrified. He piled his family into his truck and drove away from his home in Northern Iraq, fleeing the gunfire, explosions, and chaos that surrounded his village. Numerous vehicles drove beside him, venturing miles up dusty dirt roads to escape the onslaught of the Islamic State’s jihadists. But the traffic was slow, and crowds of people streamed up the road, running from communities near and far. Barakat pressed on, determined to keep himself and his family alive.[1]
Barakat’s story is similar to those of many Yazidi survivors whose communities were ravaged by the Islamic State jihadist group in 2014. Beginning on August 3rd, IS fighters invaded Yazidi villages and towns in Northern Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, rounding up men, women, and children. Yazidi men were ordered to convert to Islam; those who did not, and even some who did, were executed in mass graves. Yazidi women and girls were abducted and sold into sexual slavery, being forcibly “married” to jihadists and other individuals in Iraq, Syria, and other countries. Yazidi boys were also kidnapped by the Islamic State and sent to training camps, where they were indoctrinated into the group’s severe interpretation of Islam and trained to become soldiers. IS glorified its atrocities online in gruesome videos, propaganda magazines, and religious publications, emphasizing its commitment to eradicating Yazidi identity.[2]
Survivors and scholars agree that August 3rd, 2014, was the beginning of a genocide against the Yazidi people, which the United Nations defines as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”[3] Unfortunately, ten years later, this genocide remains ongoing. Although the Islamic State was militarily defeated in Iraq in December 2017,[4] the consequences of its crimes still plague the Yazidi community.
A Brief Overview of the Yazidi Community and Anti-Yazidism
Before we can begin to understand the Yazidi Genocide’s legacy, we must first understand the roots of the Yazidi people, as well as the ideas that fueled the violence against them. The Yazidis (also spelled Yezidis and Ezidis) are a Kurdish-speaking ethnoreligious group native to the Sinjar and Sheikhan regions of Northern Iraq. They are an ancient people, with a calendar stretching back over 6,770 years according to oral tradition. Yazidis practice a monotheistic religion that combines elements of pre-Islamic Iranian and Zoroastrian beliefs with Abrahamic and Islamic ones.[5] Central to Yazidi religion is the belief in Tawusi Melek, or the “Peacock Angel” in English. The Peacock Angel is an emanation of God who is responsible for enacting his will on Earth and aiding the Yazidi people.[6]
Since the Middle Ages, Yazidis have endured centuries of persecution due to their belief in the Peacock Angel, mostly at the hands of Muslim rulers, militant groups, and neighbors. This religious violence largely stems from these perpetrators, including the Islamic State, falsely identifying the Peacock Angel with the figure of Satan in the Qur’an.[7] Even though the Peacock Angel is a holy, benevolent being who is not affiliated with Satan in Yazidi religion, Yazidis have been derided as “devil worshippers” and survived multiple massacres and forced conversion campaigns. Yazidi tradition counts 74 firmans, or genocides, committed against them, with the latest being the 2014 genocide.[8]
The Yazidi Genocide: An Ongoing Human Rights Crisis
The Islamic State’s genocide utterly devastated the Yazidi community. Between 5,000 and 11,000 people were either murdered or abducted,[9] while hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes in Northern Iraq. IS fighters looted their victims’ belongings after killing or capturing them, razing entire towns and farmland. Therefore, the vast majority of Yazidis in Iraq and Kurdistan have lived in refugee camps for the past ten years, unable or unwilling to return to their former lands.
Life for Yazidis in the refugee camps is extremely difficult. Food and water are scarce, and job opportunities are virtually nonexistent. These hardships have created a potent sense of hopelessness among Yazidi refugees; suicide rates in the camps are disturbingly high, and the lack of employment has led many young people to engage in heavy drug use. These issues have been made worse by the inaction of the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, who have shown no commitment to rebuilding Yazidi towns and villages.
In addition to hopelessness and inaction, political corruption and militarization have emerged as major obstacles to the resolution of the Yazidi Genocide. The Yazidi settlements that survived the genocide’s initial phase from 2014 to 2017 have since been taken over by numerous political parties. These parties control all forms of local life, including the economy, education, and job prospects. Yazidis who choose to return home are forced to join the given party and abide by its rules, or else face intimidation, arrest, torture, or death.[10]
This toxic political climate is exacerbated by strong anti-Yazidi sentiment among many Iraqi and Kurdish Muslims. The stereotype that Yazidis are “devil worshippers” has remained widespread for the past decade, and so has religious violence against the community. In May 2023, gangs of Muslims attacked Yazidis living in refugee camps and villages in Northern Iraq. This wave of violence was stoked by conservative Muslim clerics on Instagram and TikTok, who urged their followers to commit violence against Yazidis.[11]
Today, in 2024, the Yazidi Genocide continues. The Islamic State’s crimes, compounded with the rampant political inaction, corruption, and bigotry of the past ten years, have cost the Yazidi people thousands of lives. Yet, while the future of the Yazidis in Iraq and Kurdistan remains bleak, there are still glimmers of hope. From the very first days of the genocide, Yazidi survivors and activists, both in the Middle East and abroad, have banded together to address the issues that their people currently face. Nonprofits such as Yazda, The Free Yezidi Foundation, and Nadia’s Initiative have worked tirelessly to provide aid for refugees, lobby governments and humanitarian organizations to take greater action on behalf of their community, and raise greater awareness about their people’s history, beliefs, and struggles. We must support this vital work. If we don’t, the genocide may become a decade longer.
To learn more about the Yazidi Genocide, visit the Yazidi Genocide Archive.
By deepening understanding of patterns of genocide, the work of the JFCS Holocaust Center and the California Teachers Collaborative inspires moral courage and social responsibility in future generations.
[1] “Barakat Oral History Interview Transcript,” Yazidi Genocide Archive, February 3-4, 2023, https://www.yazidigenocidearchive.com/_files/ugd/368579_092dd8b456074f31bdae974e56a2f885.pdf.
[2] Vicken Cheterian, “ISIS Genocide against the Yazidis and Mass Violence in the Middle East,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 48, no. 4 (2019): 1-7, doi:10.1080/13530194.2019.1683718.
[3] United Nations, “Genocide,” Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, accessed August 2, 2024, https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml.
[4] Ian J. McCary, “The Islamic State Five Years Later: Persistent Threats, U.S. Options,” U.S. Department of State, March 21, 2024, https://www.state.gov/the-islamic-state-five-years-later-persistent-threats-u-s-options.
[5] Eszter Spät, The Yazidis (Saqi Books: London, 2005), 32.
[6] Ibid.
[7] For readers who want a more detailed explanation on this prejudice, see Spät, 25-27.
[8] Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, “Mass Violence and Genocide by the Islamic State/Daesh in Iraq and Syria,” University of Minnesota, accessed August 2, 2024, https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/mass-violence-and-genocide-islamic-statedaesh.
[9] Valeria Cetorelli, Isaac Sasson, Nazar Shabila, and Gilbert Burnham, “Mortality and kidnapping estimates for the Yazidi population in the area of Mount Sinjar, Iraq, in August 2014: A retrospective household survey,” PLOS Medicine 14, no. 5 (2017), doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002297.
[10] “Matthew Travis Barber Interview Transcript,” Yazidi Genocide Archive, June 16, 2023, https://www.yazidigenocidearchive.com/_files/ugd/368579_c27f030c642747e0a970f3e04aa30c07.pdf.
[11] Phone Call with Ashti H., May 14, 2023.