Sex Adi and The Establishment of Yazidism (CA. 1070s–1162)

Abstract

When the so-called Islamic State invaded parts of northern Iraq in 2014, one of the groups they victimized was the Iraqi Yazidi population. Many Muslims in the region had long been suspicious of the distinctive beliefs of the Yazidis, and the Islamic State had even declared them devil-worshippers, ensuring that there would be little concern for their treatment or well-being. In Sinjar, as the forces of the Islamic State defeated the Kurdish Peshmerga military forces that were defending the city, the Yazidi population of around 40,000 people fled into the nearby mountains, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis. Such fears were soon realized, when news emerged of mass suffering—including reports of slower-moving sick or elderly Yazidis being executed. At one point, tens of thousands of Yazidis were encircled by Islamic State troops, before being able to flee thanks to targeted U.S. airstrikes. Nevertheless, thousands of Yazidis were slaughtered; in addition, thousands of females were taken captive, then sold and traded as slaves or given as booty to Islamic State militants. Those who refused to convert to Islam were raped and eventually murdered. The Islamic State has argued, in its glossy English language propaganda magazine Dabiq, that such treatment of Yazidi women is acceptable according to hadith and is a sign of Islamic end-times prophecy. In November 2015, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum referred to Islamic State crimes against the Yazidis as “genocide” in a strongly worded denunciation of their actions.