Social Reality and the Status of Women in Şengal (Sinjar)
Some Information About the Ezidis (Yazidis)
The Ezidi people are deeply rooted in history and embody the oldest form of faith of the Kurdish people. However, although based on an ancient foundation, the current form of the faith was formed in the early 1000s under the leadership of Sheikh Adi.
The fact that the oldest communities in history define themselves not through their language and cultural commonalities, but through their religion – similar to Judaism – is a form of identification that continues to this day. Especially among the Ezidis in Şengal, the fact that the Ezidi identity is more prominent than the Kurdish identity is due to the continuation of this oldest way of defining social identity. It is known that during the emergence of the Ezidis, the Kurdish people were not called Kurds, but rather their religion and dynasty. (Although the word Kurd existed even in Sumer and began to be used as a word in the 200s A.D., the national identity has a history of 200-300 years). Almost all Ezidi people speak the ‘high Kurmanji’ dialect of Kurdish, with the sole exception of Ezidis around Bashiqa who speak Arabic. It is stated that they are most likely of Adani origin. This is because the Ezidis say that they are not assimilated Ezidis, but Ezidis who have been speaking Arabic since the beginning.
Ezidi religion is based on Mazdaism and Zoroastrianism and shows this foundation by sanctifying the fire and the sun, praying to them, and having places of worship as reflections of them, as well as being an angelic belief system and reincarnation (‘kiras guhertin’). They have special attendants in all their sacred domes and in Lalish to keep the fire burning, and they pray in the morning by turning to the sun. Unlike monotheistic religions, angels are very influential. Despite these characteristics, it is known that they have been seriously influenced by Islam, Christianity, Mani and even Hindu religions and have adopted some of their characteristics, as all religions are influenced by each other. Each religion has adopted certain forms of worship, mythology and meaning-making of another religion. It is understandable that this is also the case in the Ezidi religion, but the reality is a bit more complicated. This confusion is mainly related to Sheikh Adi and the situation after him. With Sheikh Adi, the Sufi aspect of Islam came to the fore, while with his death and the weakening of the Adani, their old religious identity became dominant.
Women in the Ezidi faith
In the Ezidi faith, women are also considered religious leaders. Xatuna Ferxa, one of the holiest domes, is named after a woman. Men and women attend worship services together in Lalish, and religious officials are composed of both men and women. Marriage rules and divorce laws are more flexible for both men and women than in other regional religions. In the past, monogamy was the main form of marriage, polygamy has gradually developed in some places, especially in Şengal . At weddings and events, men and women dance the halay. Pre-marital flirtations between the two sexes are considered natural and not strange. Education in Ezidi society has been very limited. When the opportunity for education became available, women went to school in areas where there were Ezidi communities. However, it should be noted that Ezidi society has a patriarchal structure within the family. The male is decisive. When all these characteristics are evaluated, Ezidi women are also seen as the second sex in a patriarchal social reality and are oppressed. However, their participation in social life and their right to have a say in their own society is closer to that of men compared to other regional religions. Therefore, they have more self-confidence.
The fact that they are relatively better off does not mean that they live in freedom. On the contrary, the kidnapping of Ezidi women by Muslim peoples has created a serious social defense reflex that has led to women being kept very closed to the outside. Being more comfortable within themselves is balanced by defenses against the outside. The issue of the treatment of women is also related to the persistence of natural social characteristics and the roots of the Ezidi belief system.
The reality of massacre and genocide among the Ezidis
Ezidis call the massacre they experienced an ‘Ferman’ (edict). Ferman means an order given by an authority. In particular, they describe the massacre as an Ferman because most of the massacres took place during the Ottoman Empire with Ferman’s issued by sultans and provincial governors. Massacre and Ottoman Ferman mean the same thing to Ezidis. The most distinctive Ottoman word in the Ezidi language is Ferman.
It is known that just before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, Ezidis were widespread throughout Kurdistan and in the 13th century they were influential from the north Kurdish region Mereş [Turkish name Kahramanmaraş] to the north Kurdish region Serhat to Şengal in the south. After the establishment of the Ottomans, the Ezidis, who were in the far west and neighbors of the Ottomans, suffered the first massacres. They were erased from that geography to such an extent that it was even removed from historical documents that the triangle of the Turkish city of Kilis, the Kurdish city Sêwas [Turkish name Sivas] and the Mediterranean was once the territory of the most powerful Ezidis, the Mirliks. No one can even guess that the tribes in Kilis that are now Arab Sunnis were once Ezidis. West of the Euphrates, they were literally erased from history by the Ottomans. Caught between the two empires during the Ottoman-Safavid wars, they were asked by both sides to take a position in their favor, and they could not save themselves from being massacred by attacks from both sides. It is documented that after the Ottoman Empire took control of the Şengal-Şêxan [Ain Sifni] region, like other Middle Eastern regions, it repeatedly issued edicts to convert the Ezidis to Islam. If they did not accept Islam, everything was permissible. Kidnapping and selling women and children, raping women and selling them as concubines, and killing men became a tradition. Humanity was horrified by the attacks of IS, but for the Ezidi people, whose collective memory is very vivid, these practices were atrocities they already experienced.
The Ezidi tradition of resistance
All historical documents show that Ezidi women defended themselves against these attacks. One document even describes the resistance of two captured Ezidi girls under the age of 14, whose resistance became an example for all Ezidi women. One of the Ezidi girls, who resisted the Ottoman soldiers’ attempts to rape her, reportedly poked out the soldier’s eye and the other bit his hand. The document states that the breasts of the resisting Ezidi girls were cut off, lime was applied to their wounds, and they were hanged to death. What else they did, documented and undocumented, is the darkest and most brutal pages of history. It is also documented that the last Ottoman massacre took place during the Ottoman-Russian War. The Armenian genocide is talked about a lot and it has to be talked about and it has to be held to account, but they were not the only ones who suffered a massive genocide during that period. This genocide, in which nearly a million Ezidis were massacred and which led to the extinction of the Ezidis in Northern Kurdistan, especially in Serhat, should also be spoken about. The few survivors of the massacre fled to the Caucasus. There were also attacks by the Iraqi state, especially during the era of Saddam Hussein.
In addition, in order to control the Ezidis, Saddam forbade them to stay in the mountains and relocated them to towns consisting of a few villages in the plains, turning them into a defenseless society, economically, politically and security dependent on itself, at the mercy of its enemies. In addition to state attacks, Ezidis, throughout history, have been repeatedly attacked by their Christian, Kurdish and Arab Muslim neighbors. Mîr Badrexan is said to have forced the Ezidis to convert to Islam, enslaved their women, and killed 400 Ezidis who resisted. His Christian neighbors also carried out similar attacks from time to time. Indeed, Ezidis were subjected to genocidal attacks that exceeded massacres 73 times. Although they used to be the main belief system all over Kurdistan, they are now almost non-existent in Kurdistan. Despite centuries of genocide, it is a miracle that they have survived, especially in Şêxan and Şengal, and a testament to their resilience.
IS genocide attack in Şengal
The most recent genocidal attack by IS in 2014 was an attack aimed at a complete annihilation of Ezidis in Kurdistan. The Ezidis had always tried to develop good relations to protect themselves from the attacks of the surrounding peoples. They circumcised their children in the arms of their neighbors, the Arab and Kurdish Muslims, and established a bond of brotherhood. This is why, despite the rise of radical Islamic organizations in the region, they did not flee, thinking that their neighbors would not attack them. The Ezidi village of Koço, on the Arab border, relied on this and did not flee even when IS entered the area. But their neighbors started massacring all the men past puberty and all the women of advanced age. Even if they tried to flee after that, there was nothing they could do because they were far from the mountains. Thousands of people were massacred, women and children were taken captive. People in the villages of Siba, Til Ezer and from villages close to the center of Şengal tried to flee when they realized what had been done to Koço, but thousands of them were captured.
The resistance of two Ezidi mothers who resisted in IS captured areas is engraved in the memories. While the Ezidi people were being loaded into cars and taken to be slaughtered, a mother, at a moment when everyone was frozen with fear, grabbed the gun from the hands of an IS fighter and killed the IS fighter. After this incident, the Ezidi mother was massacred. Another woman who lived alone was an elderly woman who had provided for the needs of the Ezidi community before the massacre. When IS invaded the area, she did not run away and cursed them. IS slaughtered that old woman too. During the massacre, those who lived north of the mountain fled towards Rojava [Western Kurdistan/Northern Syria] and those who lived south of the mountain fled towards the mountain. At that time, there were thousands of armed forces (called ‘Pêşmerga’) by the ‘Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê’ (Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP) in Şengal. The Iraqi army also had a big force but some of the army soldiers joined IS, others fled. Although thousands of Pêşmergas had heavy weapons in their hands, they fled with everything they had. The people were left completely defenseless. Some children and elderly people died of thirst and heat in the summer heat. There were only 12 militants of the ‘Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan’ (Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK) among the people. These militants, who were doing propaganda work, did not even have enough weapons for themselves. These 12 militants, using a heavy machine gun left behind by the Pêşmergas at the top of the mountain, prevented IS from entering the mountain with their vehicles. This is how the entrances and exits to the mountain were protected.
Tens of thousands of people were saved from IS’s total annihilation of the Ezidis by the good positioning and use of these 12 militants. But for all those people who had taken refuge in the mountains, there was not enough water, food or ammunition in case of a full-scale attack.
Safe corridor from Şengal to Rojava
With the announcement of the 73rd Ferman, the guerrilla fighters of ‘Hêzên Parastina Gel’ (People’s Defence Forces, HPG) HPG and the ‘Yekîneyên Jinên Azad ên Star’ (Free Women’s Unit, YJA-STAR) came from the mountains of Kurdistan and forces of the ‘Yekîneyên Parastina Jin’ (Women’s Protection Unit, YPJ) and ‘Yekîneyên Parastina Gel’ (People’s Defence Unit, YPG) came from Rojava to aid the people trapped in the mountains. They broke the encirclement formed by IS and created a corridor to pass the people to Rojava. For those who wanted to stay on the mountain, they left forces to defend themselves. The surroundings of Mount Şengal were completely under IS rule. During this process, Ezidi youth also received defense training. They learned to protect themselves, which where the ‘Yekîneyên Berxwedana Şengal’ (Resistance Units of Şengal, YBŞ) and the ‘Yekîneyên Jinên Şengalê’ (Women’s Units of Şengal, YJŞ) the defense force of Şengal, consisting of Ezidi men and women, came from. The YBŞ and YJŞ, together with the HPG and YJA STAR on the one side and the YPG and YPJ on the other side, began to clear the area around Mount Şengal from IS. Until the liberation of Şengal, these young men and women, the people’s defense forces, fought against IS and gradually liberated the area. Coalition forces, Iraqi army and Pêşmergas joined the last offensive against IS and Şengal was completely liberated.
However, liberated Şengal had experienced immense destruction. The majority of the people fleeing the genocide had left and wanted to get away as far as they could. Some of them settled in camps in Rojava, some in the Southern Kurdistan region and some in Northern Kurdistan. There were also some who made it to Europe and other continents. The Ezidi people were going through a great upheaval. They were leaving the last lands where they had struggled to live throughout human history.
The property of the Ezidi people was plundered by IS and Şengal was in ruins. The houses of Ezidi people were burned, destroyed and made uninhabitable. Nearly all of the 68 religious domes in Şengal were blown up and destroyed. According to UN data, the number of Ezidi captives was 6417. 3548 of them were women and the rest were children. Thousands of men, women and children were massacred. There are currently 81 mass graves in the towns of Şengal. There are also many small mass graves, a lot are still not discovered.
Liberation of captive women and children
Every effort was made to rescue the captured women and children. They were sold, and they were forced to change their religion. Many of the rescued children had been subjected to IS’s ideological training, which led them to call Ezidis infidels and to look at their families as foreigners. Captured Ezidi women, who were unaware of the developments, were afraid to say that they were Ezidi and therefore could not be found. Especially the ‘Quwwāt Sūriyā ad-dīmuqrāṭīya’ (Syrian Democratic Forces, QSD) handed over Ezidi women and children to their families in areas they cleared from IS. Although thousands of women and children were rescued, it can be assumed that it will take a long time for these women and children to re-adapt to their societies, and in fact they will never be the same again. On the other hand, nearly 3000 Ezidi women and children are still missing and there is no information about their fate.
With this last Ferman, the Ezidis suffered enormous physical loss, they lost all of their material values, they experienced the most severe social trauma, and they experienced a great dislocation with a much greater external migration. In other words, they clearly experienced genocide, not ‘just’ a massacre. They reached the edge of extinction. In addition to all these experiences, we should add the treatment they are still subjected to in the camps. Especially the South Kurdistan regional government and the KDP consider the Ezidis as a source of political and economic rent in the camps. They are engaging in practices that lead to the moral and economic disintegration of the people in poverty, fear and insecurity, and prevent them from returning to their lands through manipulations. They try every means to prevent the people from returning to Şengal.
While the KDP receives economic aid and political support through the Ezidis in the camps, it wants the Pêşmerga to be dominant in Şengal again, as in the pre-IS period. This policy, which does not seek to protect the people but is based on establishing sovereignty over them, is not accepted by the Ezidi people. The KDP wants to achieve its goal by defaming the YBŞ and the political organizations of the Ezidi people and playing all kinds of games. At the same time, the Turkish state shows its discontent with the liberation of the Ezidi people by the PKK with airstrikes on Şengal. The self-defense forces of a people who have just experienced genocide are targeted again. They are being massacred, the people are being intimidated and kidnapped. The attacks of the KDP and the Turkish state clearly lead to nothing but the completion of the genocide. What can it mean to still carry out sovereignty policies over a people whose population has decreased so much, to massacre their children with air strikes, to prevent humanitarian aid from arriving, other than finishing the unfinished business of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, genocide continues through the Turkish state and the KDP.
Women’s leading role
Women played a decisive role in all the recovery efforts after the massacre. Even the mothers received weapon training to defend their land. They reacted in the forefront to all the aggressive, rent-seeking policies imposed from outside. Although they had never participated in political work before, never joined an organization, they adapted very quickly as they became aware of their voluntary and necessary participation. They made great efforts to rescue the captured Ezidi women. They assumed founding roles in the service work and assemblies established to help the community rebuild its life. Ezidi women are rapidly becoming politicized. In addition to participating in the general organized structures of the society, they have also become the founders of women’s own organizations. They founded the ‘Tevgera Azadiya Jinên Êzidî’ (Ezidi Free Women’s Movement, TAJE) which provides women’s education, organization, struggle, and politicization. TAJE was founded as the organization that gave spirit and courage to the resistance of the Ezidi people and became the symbol of resistance against the genocidal history. It developed as an organization that embraced its ancient truth and turned its face towards a free future. TAJE established a foundation to meet the many needs of women and their children. It formed assemblies in every town.
They discussed women’s problems and sought solutions. Undoubtedly, this is the first time in the history of both the Ezidi people and Ezidi women. Although many women have played a pioneering role in these efforts, there is still the fact that not all Ezidi women have joined organized structures. But it should be noted that the more the importance of being organized is understood, the more concrete examples of what they can do are revealed, the more women participate and the more they develop.