Terms of Service

Last updated: August 27, 2026

Welcome to Yazidis.info.

These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of Yazidis.info, including its articles, reference pages, research guides, images, tools, downloadable materials, and other content or services made available through the website.

By accessing or using Yazidis.info, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree with them, please discontinue use of the website.

1. About Yazidis.info

Yazidis.info is an independent educational and reference project about Yazidi history, religion, culture, heritage, communities, and related subjects.

Yazidis.info is not a Yazidi organisation and does not claim to represent or speak on behalf of the Yazidi community.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, we are not affiliated with or endorsed by any Yazidi religious authority, community institution, political organisation, survivor organisation, cultural association, academic institution, government, United Nations body, NGO, or other organisation referenced on this website.

The website exists to document, organize, explain, and provide access to information from identifiable sources.

2. No Community or Religious Authority

Nothing on Yazidis.info should be treated as an official statement of Yazidi belief, religious doctrine, community policy, cultural authority, or collective opinion.

Yazidi communities and individuals may hold different understandings of religious practices, terminology, traditions, history, identity, and contemporary issues.

Where possible, Yazidis.info distinguishes among:

  • Yazidi community perspectives;
  • religious or traditional understandings;
  • academic interpretations;
  • historical-source claims;
  • institutional findings;
  • eyewitness testimony; and
  • editorial explanation.

The website does not determine which beliefs or practices an individual Yazidi should follow.

3. Informational Purposes Only

Content on Yazidis.info is provided for general educational, historical, cultural, and research-reference purposes.

It does not constitute:

  • legal advice;
  • medical or psychological advice;
  • religious instruction;
  • professional academic advice;
  • humanitarian or security advice;
  • financial advice; or
  • any other form of professional service.

Readers making consequential decisions should consult appropriately qualified professionals or relevant community authorities.

Researchers and students should consult the original works cited on Yazidis.info rather than treating our summaries as substitutes for primary or scholarly sources.

4. Sources, Accuracy, and Editorial Interpretation

We make reasonable efforts to identify reliable sources and accurately represent them.

Substantive articles may rely on materials including academic books, peer-reviewed publications, archival records, primary sources, United Nations documentation, NGO reports, community publications, oral-history projects, historical documents, and other relevant materials.

However:

  • sources may contain errors;
  • interpretations may change as scholarship develops;
  • historical records may be incomplete;
  • translations and transliterations may vary;
  • community practices may differ by place, family, religious role, or historical period;
  • scholars may disagree; and
  • new evidence may require an article to be revised.

Yazidis.info therefore does not guarantee that every statement is complete, current, universally accepted, or free from error.

Where credible disagreement exists, our editorial preference is to identify the competing perspectives rather than conceal uncertainty.

5. Corrections and Community Feedback

Yazidis.info welcomes corrections, particularly from Yazidi readers.

Corrections from Yazidi readers concerning community practices, religious terminology, cultural representation, translations, names, places, or descriptions receive priority in our editorial review process.

You may contact us if you believe content:

  • contains a factual error;
  • misrepresents a Yazidi belief or practice;
  • treats a local tradition as universal;
  • uses inappropriate terminology;
  • contains an incorrect translation or transliteration;
  • confuses academic interpretation with community understanding;
  • omits important context; or
  • relies on a problematic or outdated source.

Submitting a correction does not guarantee publication or acceptance of the proposed change.

We may review the submission against published scholarship, community documentation, primary sources, additional testimony, or other evidence before modifying an article.

6. Permitted Use of the Website

You may use Yazidis.info for lawful personal, educational, journalistic, academic, and research purposes.

You may:

  • read and link to publicly accessible pages;
  • cite Yazidis.info using appropriate attribution;
  • quote limited portions of articles where permitted by applicable law;
  • use factual information obtained from the site, subject to verification;
  • share links to articles; and
  • use material that is explicitly identified as public domain or openly licensed according to its stated license.

Your use must comply with applicable law and these Terms.

7. Prohibited Uses

You may not use Yazidis.info in a manner that:

  • violates applicable law;
  • attempts to gain unauthorized access to the website or its infrastructure;
  • deliberately interferes with website availability or security;
  • introduces malware, malicious code, or automated attacks;
  • impersonates Yazidis.info or falsely claims an official relationship with us;
  • falsely suggests that Yazidis.info endorses an individual, organisation, product, political position, or religious interpretation;
  • systematically republishes substantial portions of our original editorial content without permission or another lawful basis;
  • removes copyright, attribution, licensing, or source information from material;
  • harvests personal information from the website for unlawful purposes;
  • uses the website to harass, threaten, or target individuals or communities; or
  • misrepresents edited material as an unaltered statement published by Yazidis.info.

We may restrict access to users or automated systems that materially interfere with the operation or security of the website.

Unless otherwise indicated, original articles, editorial explanations, site design elements, graphics, databases, compilations, and other original material created for Yazidis.info may be protected by applicable copyright and intellectual-property laws.

The publication of material on this website does not automatically place it in the public domain.

You may link to our pages and make uses permitted by applicable copyright law.

For substantial reproduction, republication, commercial reuse, translation, syndication, or redistribution of original Yazidis.info content, please contact us unless the relevant material carries a license that already permits the intended use.

9. Facts Are Not Claimed as Our Exclusive Property

Yazidis.info does not claim ownership of historical facts, dates, names, ideas, theories, religious traditions, public records, or other information merely because those facts appear in our articles.

However, our original wording, organization, illustrations, editorial commentary, and other original expression may be protected separately.

Whenever possible, researchers should follow our citations to the underlying source and cite the original source directly.

10. Third-Party Material

Articles may contain quotations, photographs, historical documents, maps, illustrations, screenshots, archival materials, or other content originating from third parties.

Ownership of third-party materials remains with the respective rights holders.

Such material may be:

  • in the public domain;
  • used under an open license;
  • reproduced with permission;
  • quoted for research or commentary;
  • embedded from an external provider; or
  • used under another basis permitted by applicable law.

A license applying to Yazidis.info’s original material does not automatically apply to third-party material displayed within an article.

Users are responsible for determining the rights status of third-party content before reusing it.

11. Openly Licensed Content

Some content may be made available under Creative Commons or another open license.

Where a specific license is displayed, its terms govern reuse of that material.

Different materials on the same page may have different rights statuses. For example, original article text, a historical photograph, and a reproduced map may each be governed by different copyright or licensing conditions.

Always check the attribution and licensing information associated with the individual item.

12. Trademarks and Names

Names, logos, trademarks, service marks, organisation names, publication titles, institutional identities, and other identifiers appearing on Yazidis.info may belong to their respective owners.

Their appearance on this website is normally for identification, commentary, historical reference, citation, or informational purposes.

Such use does not imply sponsorship, affiliation, approval, or endorsement.

Yazidis.info may link to third-party websites, including:

  • academic publishers;
  • universities;
  • libraries and archives;
  • museums;
  • United Nations agencies;
  • government institutions;
  • NGOs;
  • human-rights organisations;
  • Yazidi community organisations;
  • journals;
  • news publications; and
  • other research resources.

External sites are controlled by their respective operators.

We are not responsible for their content, security, accuracy, privacy policies, availability, future modifications, or practices.

A link from Yazidis.info does not automatically constitute an endorsement.

14. User Submissions and Correspondence

You may voluntarily send us corrections, suggestions, source recommendations, research leads, or other correspondence.

By submitting material, you confirm that you have the right to provide it.

Unless otherwise agreed, sending us information does not create:

  • an employment relationship;
  • a confidential relationship;
  • an attorney-client relationship;
  • an academic-supervision relationship;
  • a partnership;
  • an agency relationship; or
  • an obligation to publish the submission.

Do not send confidential, highly sensitive, or personally identifying information unless it is necessary and you understand the risks associated with electronic communication.

We may quote or publish submitted material only when we have an appropriate basis to do so and, where necessary, permission from the contributor.

15. Survivor Testimony and Sensitive Information

Materials involving genocide survivors, missing persons, sexual violence, captivity, children, displaced persons, or other vulnerable individuals require particular care.

Users must not use information obtained through Yazidis.info to harass, identify, locate, threaten, exploit, or otherwise harm survivors, witnesses, family members, or community members.

The presence of information in a public source does not necessarily make harmful secondary use appropriate.

We may remove, restrict, anonymize, or revise material when legitimate privacy, safety, ethical, or legal concerns arise.

16. No Guarantee of Continuous Availability

We may modify, reorganize, suspend, remove, or discontinue any part of Yazidis.info at any time.

Articles may change as:

  • new sources become available;
  • errors are corrected;
  • terminology evolves;
  • scholarship develops;
  • community feedback is received; or
  • editorial standards are updated.

We do not guarantee uninterrupted access to the website or preservation of every previous version of an article.

17. No Warranty

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Yazidis.info is provided on an as-is and as-available basis.

We make reasonable efforts to maintain accurate and useful content, but we do not warrant that:

  • all information is complete or error-free;
  • all sources remain available;
  • the website will operate without interruption;
  • all links will remain functional;
  • every article reflects the latest research; or
  • content is suitable for a particular purpose.

Nothing in this section excludes rights or warranties that cannot legally be excluded.

18. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Yazidis.info and its operators, contributors, editors, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or similar damages arising from reliance on the website or inability to access it.

Users remain responsible for independently evaluating information before relying on it for significant academic, legal, religious, professional, security, financial, medical, or personal decisions.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability where such limitation is prohibited by applicable law.

19. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree not to hold Yazidis.info responsible for claims arising from your unlawful misuse of the website, infringement of third-party rights, or material violation of these Terms.

This provision does not apply where prohibited by applicable consumer-protection or other mandatory law.

20. Privacy

Use of Yazidis.info may involve the processing of limited technical or personal information, such as information submitted through contact forms, security logs, analytics systems, cookies, or similar technologies.

Where applicable, the collection and use of such information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

21. No Waiver

If we do not immediately enforce a provision of these Terms, that does not mean we permanently waive the right to enforce it.

22. Severability

If a provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

An invalid provision should, where legally possible, be interpreted or modified only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable.

23. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws applicable to the jurisdiction in which the operator of Yazidis.info is legally established, subject to any mandatory consumer-protection or other laws that may apply to an individual user.

Nothing in these Terms removes rights that cannot lawfully be waived under applicable law.

24. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms of Service when:

  • the website changes;
  • new features are introduced;
  • editorial policies evolve;
  • legal requirements change; or
  • clarification becomes necessary.

The current version will be published on this page with an updated revision date.

Your continued use of Yazidis.info after revised Terms are published constitutes acceptance of those Terms to the extent permitted by applicable law.

25. Contact

Questions concerning these Terms, copyright, corrections, attribution, permissions, or use of material may be submitted through the Contact Us page.

For corrections involving Yazidi history, religion, culture, terminology, or community representation, please include enough information for us to investigate the issue and, where possible, provide supporting sources.

Yazidis.info is an independent reference project. We do not speak for the Yazidi community. Our purpose is to document carefully, identify sources, distinguish perspectives, acknowledge disagreement, and correct errors when they are found.