The Human Rights situation of the Yezidi minority - UNHCR

human beings following death). 11 In the Yezidi cosmology, God created the world, which is
now controlled by seven Holy Beings (often referred to as “angels”). The most prominent of
these is Malak Tawus, the Peacock Angel, who has often been identified by outsiders with
Satan, although Yezidis reject this identification and most find it highly offensive. Yezidis
believe that the Holy Beings periodically undergo reincarnation in human form, a belief
which underpins the caste system as members of elite castes are deemed to be descended
from reincarnations of the Holy Beings. 12 The belief in reincarnation also provides a
framework for the syncretistic incorporation of figures from other traditions, who can be said
to be earlier manifestations of the Holy Beings. 13 The incorporation of disparate types of
religious tradition into the Yezidi faith is captured well in the following quote:
shamanism shows in the burial procedures, the importance attached to visions and
dreams, the use of dancing as exorcism; Nestorian Christian influences seem implicit in
the practice of baptism, the use of wine in a eucharistic sense, and the willingness of
Yezidis to attend church occasions like weddings; Islam may underlie the commitments
to fasting, pilgrimage and circumcision, and Sufism the attachment to tomb-visiting, to
secrecy and to revelation through ecstasy. 14
The Yezidi religion features an extensive system of taboos and proscriptions. Adherence to
these taboos is variable; some, such as endogamy, are widely respected. Others, such as the
consumption of certain foodstuffs, are often ignored. Traditionally a Yezidi wife must ask her
husband’s permission before she speaks, a tradition still observed by some Yezidis in the
South Caucasus.
1.5 The Yezidi Social System
The Yezidi religion is closely linked to the caste system obtaining among Yezidis. All
Yezidis belong to one of three hereditary and endogamous castes (Sheikhs, Pirs and
Murids). 15 Sheikhs and Pirs are expected to provide spiritual guidance and participation
during key rituals and rites of passage in the lives of their Murids (a term shared with Sufism
meaning “disciple”, with the added meaning in the Yezidi context of “layman”).
Another key group in Yezidi religion is that of the Qewwals, the guardians and interpreters of
the sacred textual tradition of qawls, hymns in Kurmanji Kurdish. Increasingly few of those
born into Qewwal families have taken up the profession of being a Qewwal. The writing
down and publication of qawls is a recent development dating from the 1970s, and one which
has attracted controversy within the community. However, with the growth of the diaspora
community Yezidi sacred texts have increasingly become the subject of documentation and
research, with the result that Yezidism is being transformed into a scriptural religion. 16
11 Yazidis, in Encyclopaedia Iranica
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Cunningham, A., Foreword, in J. S. Guest, The Yezidis: A Study in Survival, London: KPI, 1987, pp.xvii-xviii
15 See Kreyenbroek and Rashow, pp.6-14, for an overview of the Yezidi caste system and its relationship to
Yezidi religious beliefs
16 Ibid, p.xiv
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