Yazidis

Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis ( ; Êzidî), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in West Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran, with small numbers living in Armenia and Georgia. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok.

There is a disagreement among scholars and in Yazidi circles on whether the Yazidi people are a distinct ethnoreligious group or a religious sub-group of the Kurds, an Iranic ethnic group. Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people. It developed through a complex historical process involving a pre-Islamic Kurdish religious substratum and the teachings of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir. Scholars generally regard it as an independent religious tradition with deep roots in ancient Iranian beliefs, shaped by later Sufi influences. Although it shares certain parallels with Zoroastrianism, it is not considered to have developed out of it, and scholars note the presence of some pre-Zoroastrian elements.

In the aftermath of early Muslim conquests, Yazidis have often faced persecution from their Muslim neighbours, often being accused of heresy by clerics, while at other times they established alliances and held positions of influence in Islamic countries.

In modern times, Yazidis face persecution particularly by ISIS. Due to ongoing terrorist attacks in Kurdish regions, many Yazidis sought refuge in Western countries. The 2014 Yazidi genocide that was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery, as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees.