Sema
By Khalid Hasso
The Ezidis are an integral part of the Kurdish people and a deeply rooted element of its history and civilizational memory. Across centuries, their fate has been intertwined with the Kurdish people’s struggle against oppression, denial, and attempts at erasure.
They are not merely a religious community; they are a profound historical presence in this land, carrying their identity and faith despite harsh and continuous challenges.
Throughout history, the Ezidis have endured dozens of campaigns of extermination, persecution, and forced displacement in a long series of firmans that targeted both their religious and ethnic existence. Their villages were burned, their shrines destroyed, their women enslaved, their families scattered, and their identity repeatedly threatened with obliteration. Yet the Ezidis remained steadfast in their faith, heritage, and belonging, preserving their existence and identity through successive generations.
The genocide of 3 August 2014 remains one of the most horrific crimes of the modern era. Thousands were killed, kidnapped, enslaved, and displaced in a clear attempt to destroy their religious and cultural existence. But this atrocity was not the beginning of their suffering; it was the continuation of a long historical tragedy that had accompanied the Ezidis for centuries.
The Ezidi religion is not simply a set of beliefs. It is one of the oldest indigenous Kurdish religions, deeply rooted in the region’s religious and civilizational history, and it has survived despite the major transformations the region has witnessed over millennia. This faith forms part of the ancient spiritual heritage of the Kurdish people and stands as a testament to the continuity of identity and history in this geography.
Ezidi teachings are founded on values of love, peace, tolerance, human brotherhood, and respect for human dignity. The faith calls for coexistence and rejects violence, hatred, killing, extremism, exclusion, and marginalization. It views the human being as sacred and deserving of dignity regardless of religion or affiliation.
Recognizing the Ezidi religion is not a privilege to be granted, nor a favor from anyone. It is a national, human, historical, and moral duty, and an inherent right of a people who preserved their existence despite repeated attempts at genocide and erasure. Justice for the Ezidis and acknowledgment of their suffering are essential steps toward protecting religious and cultural diversity.
The Ezidi cause and the Kurdish cause are two faces of one unbreakable banner. What the Ezidis endured is part of a long shared history of suffering, and defending their existence means defending an authentic part of Kurdish identity itself. Despite massacres, displacement, and attempts at annihilation, the Ezidis continue to carry a message of life. They believe that love is stronger than hatred, peace stronger than violence, and that peoples rooted in history cannot be uprooted, no matter how severe the trials or how deep the wounds.