Female qewlbêj are the women who chant the sacred qawls in Yazidi religious ceremonies. Though traditionally a male‑dominated role, recent scholarship documents limited but significant female participation, especially in diaspora communities.
This article examines three closed religious communities—Yazidism, the Amish, and Mandaeism—through their histories, doctrines, social structures, and contemporary challenges. By juxtaposing their origins, rituals, and interactions with the wider world, the piece highlights both shared traits of insularity and distinct theological pathways.
Yazidi genealogical preservation combines community‑driven record‑keeping, digital archiving projects, and legal advocacy to safeguard lineage information threatened by genocide, displacement, and statelessness. Initiatives such as the Yazidi Community Archive and regional digitisation programmes document centuries‑old lineages while addressing citizenship challenges for survivors’ children.
The Yazidi community of Sinjar is structured around three hereditary castes—Mirids, Sheikhs, and Pirs—each with distinct roles in religious and secular governance. Central to this system is the hereditary Mîr of Sheikhan, who appoints the Baba Sheikh and oversees the seven sanjaks that organize clan life.
The peacock, known as Tawûs in Kurdish, is the central divine figure of Yazidism, embodying the Angel of Light, cosmic order, and the material world. This article surveys its theological role, artistic representations, oral traditions, scholarly debates, and regional variations across Kurdish Yazidi communities.
Yazidi shrines, from village mazars to the grand Lalish complex, encode a rich symbolic language that intertwines theology, cosmology, and community memory. This article surveys their forms, meanings, and regional variations, drawing on recent scholarship and heritage documentation.
Qewlê Çarşema Sor is a divinely‑originated hymn recited during the Yazidi New Year, embodying cosmogonic symbolism and guiding the ritual actions of egg‑breaking, colour‑mixing and sacred offerings. Its verses link the Pearl myth to the transition from darkness to light, anchoring theology and communal practice.
This article examines how Yazidi diaspora communities negotiate marriage across borders, balancing cultural continuity with integration pressures. It draws on recent ethnographic research on Iraqi Yazidi refugees in Germany and broader studies of Yazidi migration.
Since 2006 Iraq has enacted a series of laws and judicial reforms that allow forensic evidence from mass‑grave investigations to serve as primary proof in criminal trials. These statutes and landmark cases have established precedents for admissibility, procedural handling, and victims’ rights in the Iraqi justice system.
The Yazidi calendar, rooted in the ancient Seleucid system, structures a year of twelve months and several sacred days that mark seasonal renewal. Central to this calendar is the New Year, or Red Wednesday, celebrated on the first Wednesday of April, alongside local and movable festivals that bind Yazidi communities across the Middle East and diaspora.