Society

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.

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.

The Yazidi tradition reveres the def (a frame drum) and the shibâb (oblique wooden flute) as sacred instruments, while the temir— a lesser‑documented metal idiophone—appears sporadically in regional practice. Their sounds accompany the qawwâl in ritual chant, embodying cosmological symbolism and oral transmission of holy hymns.

Yazidi educational institutions comprise a network of schools, universities, and community learning centers that aim to preserve the Yazidi language, culture, and professional skills. From digital initiatives like Yazidi At School to hybrid models such as Sinjar Academy, these entities serve displaced and underserved Yazidi youth across Iraq, the diaspora, and beyond.

Yazidi healing practices blend shamanic rituals, saintly intercessions, and folk medicine, forming a distinctive health‑seeking paradigm that intertwines the supernatural with natural remedies. These practices sustain communal cohesion, transmit religious knowledge, and adapt across diaspora contexts.

Yazidi survivors of the Daesh genocide who have been resettled in Canada face a complex mental‑health landscape. While government and community programs provide crucial services, language, cultural, and gender‑based violence issues create persistent gaps.

Yazidi “Neighbour‑by‑Choice” adoption is an informal, kin‑based practice that allows families to take in children of relatives or community members without formal legal procedures. While rooted in religious teachings of hospitality, the practice faces severe limits after the ISIS genocide, especially concerning children born to Yazidi women and ISIL fighters.

Peshmerga elders—respected former Kurdish fighters—play a central mediating role in resolving disputes among Yazidi communities, especially in displaced settings of the Duhok Governorate. Their involvement blends traditional authority with contemporary peace‑building practices.

The Seven Mysteries (Heft Sirr) occupy a central place in Yazidi theology and are repeatedly visualised in manuscripts, textiles, and ritual objects. This article surveys the iconographic motifs, their Late Antique roots, and the ways modern scholarship interprets their artistic transmission.