Yazidi Stories: A Case Study of Resistance, Resilience and Political Erasure in Mesopotamia

Abstract This research examines the stories and experiences of the Yazidis, the Indigenous population of Mesopotamia. It especially focuses on the intersections of their political resistance, cultural resilience and the impact of long-lasting epistemic and colonial violence. Although the Yazidi community has been subject to external invasion and systemic persecution since the 3 rd century CE (Potts, D. T. (2014) Nomadism in Iran: From antiquity to the modern era (Vol. xxv, p. 558). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 0 19 933079 9; Usman (2021a) Yazidis: A tale of a lost, found and misunderstood legacy in the light of mimetic theory. Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis and Culture (Vol. 28). Michigan State University Press, (2021b) History of Shia, Sunnis and Yazidi Conflict: A Political, Social or Religious Conflict and its Impact on the Peace Process in the Middle East (Ph.D dissertation, University of Innsbruck, Austria)), they were forgotten by most until they were last attacked in 2014 by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which resulted in abductions, mass murders, forced conversion and using rape as a genocidal tool to demoralise and humiliate the entire community and erase their identity. It is important to understand the voices and stories of Yazidi survivors and experts; therefore, while using a qualitative research methodology, this research gathers data through semi-structured interviews and a thorough literature review, which will then be analysed with the help of thematic analysis. As one of the objectives of this study is to deconstruct the idea of epistemic violence suffered by the Yazidis throughout their history, investigating and identifying recurring patterns of persecution, trauma and violence helps us understand the motives behind such atrocities. It is often observed that deep-rooted colonial legacies lack empathy and hinder the process of understanding the victims’ narratives, and Yazidis have suffered the same. Finally, this research contributes to an already scarce literature on the history of Yazidi sufferings and documents the stories of a marginalised community. It also encourages the international community to understand the complexity of Yazidi sufferings and treat the Yazidi genocide as a resistance of survival.