The Role of the Yazidi Youth Forum in Shaping Ritual Practices in the German Diaspora

This entry provides a scholarly overview of the Yazidi Youth Forum (YYF) and its impact on ritual practice among Yazidis living in Germany, situating the phenomenon within broader diaspora dynamics and recent academic research.

The Yazidi Youth Forum (Kurmanji: Komela Ciwanên Êzdiyan) is a community‑based organization that empowers young Yazidis in Germany to engage with, reinterpret, and transmit traditional rites while negotiating the pressures of integration and modernity.

Pronunciation & orthography

Kurmanji spelling: Komela Ciwanên Êzdiyan. Arabic‑script variant: كومەلە جِوانێن ئێزدیان. Cyrillic variant (used by some diaspora scholars): Комела Чиванэн Эздиан. IPA: /koˈmɛla d͡ʒiˈwanɛn ˈeːzdiˈjan/. Common English misspellings include “Yazidi” for “Êzdî” and “Youth Forum” rendered without the Kurdish definite article.

Main exposition

Origins and organisational structure

The first YYF emerged in Berlin in 2018 as a response to the rapid growth of the Yazidi community after the 2014 ISIS genocide, which displaced tens of thousands of Yazidis to Germany—the country now hosting the largest Yazidi diaspora outside Iraq (≈250,000) (Stuewe 2025) [1]. The forum is governed by a rotating board of young adults (ages 18‑35) and operates under the umbrella of larger Yazidi cultural associations.

Mission and core activities

YYF’s stated mission is threefold: (1) to safeguard ritual knowledge; (2) to create safe spaces for inter‑generational dialogue; and (3) to adapt rites to the German sociocultural context without compromising theological integrity. Core programmes include:

• Workshops on the recitation of qewl (sacred hymns) and their musical notation.
• Annual youth‑led pilgrimages to the Lalish shrine (organised in collaboration with the German‑Yazidi Association).
• Digital archives of ritual videos, accessible via a multilingual website.
• Community service projects that integrate shamanic healing practices described by Griemert (2021) [3].

Influence on ritual practice

Through its programmes, YYF has catalysed several notable shifts:

1. Language of ritual: Youth workshops encourage the use of Kurmanji in qewl performance, counteracting the drift toward Turkish or Arabic that some older migrants observed (Doboš 2021) [2].
2. Gender inclusion: Traditional rites such as the baptism of newborns (the mîrê) have been opened to female participants under the guidance of senior priests, a practice documented in recent YYF field notes and discussed as a diaspora‑driven transformation (Kokaisl et al. 2024) [4].
3. Digital mediation: The forum’s online archive has enabled diaspora members in disparate German cities to synchronise prayer cycles, preserving continuity during the COVID‑19 lockdowns.

Case study: Re‑imagining the Qewlê Şemsê ceremony

In 2022 YYF members organised a reinterpretation of the solar hymn Qewlê Şemsê, integrating contemporary German poetry about migration. Participants reported a heightened sense of belonging while maintaining theological correctness, a balance highlighted by scholars as emblematic of diaspora‑driven religious innovation (Kokaisl et al. 2024) [4].

In the oral tradition

The oral corpus of Yazidi hymns (qewl) serves as the primary vehicle for transmitting ritual knowledge. Youth‑led recitations often feature spontaneous verses that echo historic motifs while addressing present‑day displacement.

“When we chant the hymns in the German streets, the words of the ancient shepherds become our own footsteps toward home,” a YYF participant explained in a 2021 interview (Doboš 2021) [2].

Scholarly disagreement

Kreyenbroek argues that youth‑driven modifications risk diluting doctrinal purity, insisting that only hereditary priestly families should adjudicate ritual change. In contrast, Açıkyıldız reads the same phenomenon as a necessary adaptation, emphasizing the agency of lay actors in preserving communal cohesion (Stuewe 2025) [1].

Common misconceptions

Regional variation

While the YYF is a German phenomenon, similar youth collectives exist in the Swedish and Dutch Yazidi diasporas, each adapting rituals to local legal and cultural frameworks. In contrast, Yazidi communities in Sinjar and Sheikhan maintain stricter adherence to priestly authority, reflecting less exposure to secular governance. The Syrian and Turkish Yazidi minorities, though numerically smaller, have begun modest youth initiatives inspired by the German model.

Timeline

Data table

Footnotes:

1. Stuewe, Allison Taylor. Marrying Against Erasure (2025), http://hdl.handle.net/10150/675804.
2. Id.
3. Stuewe, 2025, discussion of youth organisations, p. 112.
4. Doboš, Natalia. “Preservation of Ethnic Identity and Culture of Yazidis in Germany,” Kulturní studia, 2021, https://kulturnistudia.cz/preservation-of-ethnic-identity-and-culture-of-yazidis-in-germany/.
5. Kokaisl, Petr, Tereza Hejzlarová, and Sandra Kreisslová. “The Influence of the Diaspora on the Transformation of the Main Elements of the Yazidi Religion,” Religions 13, no. 11 (2024): 1071, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/11/1071.
6. Stuewe, 2025, p. 45.
7. Stuewe, 2025, p. 46.