A
lecture prepared for the scholarly ( academic) conference:
Yezidism in Transition Communities at Home and in the Diaspora
Khalil
Jindy Rashow
The migration of the Yezidis
to Europe:
The
Yezidi migration from Turkey to Europe has started in mid sixties
according to a signed agreements between the German and the Turkish
governments and due to the needs of German to working force. The migration
began with the arrival of groups of Yezidi workers and their settlement in
Germany1. This migration has increased after 1984
as the Kurdish armed struggle in turkish Kurdistan started against the
Turkish regime.
The
Yezidi migration turned, from a work-seeking migration, to a systematic
one under an increased process of religious, national and political
persecution. These huge numbers started seeking political and humanitarian
asylum.
Based
on the first visit by Professor Wiesner and the Minister of the Interior
of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Schnurr, which has been followed by a
visit by a second delegation to Kurdistan of Turkey, and after filing a
report about the Yezidi situation there, they have been accepted in
Germany as a persecuted religious minority2.This
decision is still valid for them (the Yezidis). Only five hundred Yezidis,
Out of thirty thousand, are still living in Turkey, 3.
Most of the migrants are now living in Germany and in other European
countries.
The
migration of the Yezidis of Iraq, Syria, Armenia and Georgia, began in
early 1990. In Iraq, the second gulf war constituted a turning point. But
in Armenia and Georgia it began in the wake of the collapse of the soviet
union and following the changes in the political, economic and the social
circumstances there.
In
Syria, alongside the bad economic situation, the Yezidis have not been
recognized officially neither as a religion nor as a nationality and most
of them are treated like foreigners.
Despite the absence of an official and accurate census, estimates show
that there are about (55) fifty five thousand Yezidis from all the above
mentioned countries living in Germany. There are smaller numbers of them
in other European countries compared with Germany. Among these countries:
Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Britain in
addition to America, Canada and Australia.
The
social and the cultural background of the Yezidis:
The
social structure of the Yezidis is tribal, clan based and religious (
sheikh-Peer- Murid). The overwhelming majority of the Yezidis live in
Europe, whether arriving from Kurdistan of Turkey to Germany as a working
force or migrating later on from Kurdistan of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Armenia
or Georgia for political and economic reasons, are of provincial, rural
and pastoral decent. A considerable number of them are holding university
degrees, others are graduates of institutes or undergraduates. Others
are working in the services sector.
This means the prevalence of
phenomena like illiteracy, ignorance and poverty and the domination of
patriarchal thoughts and worship of ancestors spirits ( Al- Khudan). In
addition to the supremacy of religious ideas, the Yezidis cling to the
past and their glorifying of saints (holy men) spirits ( Khudan –
Persons) more than believing in abstract ideas, sacred books and texts
namely, the living being under influence of the dead and their yearning to
the past and worshiping of graves and the idolization of human beings and
building on extinguished ruins ( this is, in my opinion, the reason the
continuity and the holding together of the Yezidi religion at home)
-
Some psychological barriers:
Historically, and in the wake of the Islamic military campaigns outside
the Arabic peninsula to spread Islam under the second caliph Omer Bin AL-
Khatab, especially within the Sasanite and the Achmin states (dynasties)
borders and in Mesopotamia and Bilad al-Sham, the followers of revealed
religions (Jews, Christians, the Zoroastrians and the Sabaean and the
Mandean ) have been dealt with as free non-Moslems enjoying Moslem
protection and have the right to stay on their beliefs on condition that
they pay a certain tax.
As
regarding believers of other non-revealed religions, the worshipers of
natural phenomena and of the sun, among others the Yezidis, they have been
regarded as infidels and have been obliged either to give up their beliefs
or to be exterminated! And Then, most of the Kurds accepted Islam
forcefully or freely and those who rejected the new religion resorted to
the mountains and to inaccessible areas and turned to a closed religions.
The
Kurds, who converted to Islam took over the idea of the conqueror against
their brothers and sisters in blood and nationality and joined the
invading army in persecuting those who disagreed with their religion.
Successive regimes in Turkey, Syria and Iraq supported and encouraged
religious and sectarian differences among different nations, and these
regimes encouraged at the same time, the Kurdish landlords and the fanatic
Moslems against the Yezidis and practiced inhumane methods and confiscated
their possessions and their properties and ravished their women as war
prisoners.... etc.
This
situation created generally a psychological barrier between the Yezidis
and Islam and especially among the Moslem Kurds and Yezidi Kurds. This
caused the accumulation of a sense of carelessness among the old
generation of the Yezidis. The word (the Kurds) for the Yezidis became
the same as the word ( the Moslems).
·
The crises of the Yezidis in
Diaspora
The
Yezidi, like any other easterner, faces a number of crises. But we will
concentrate on two main crisis:
First:
National affiliation crises.
Second: The religious crises
As
regarding the national crisis: when the first generation moved to
Germany and to the rest of European countries, they transported traces of
their persecution, tragedies and the bad impressions about the fanatic
Moslem Kurds ( both offspring of one nation) to their children namely, to
the new generation which has created a real identity crisis for groups of
the new generation in Germany representing the identity loss crisis and a
kind of carelessness towards national affiliation (belonging) and towards
the Kurdish case and its national liberation movement in general.
Nationalism represents, for the
small religious and national groups migrating to Europe, especially the
Yezidis, a safe havens to protect their national, spiritual and religious
heritage, their humane values and their national aspirations. On Kurdistan
soil, where their sacred worship places exist, and their spiritual and
humane history is connected to this land, without this affiliation (
belonging), a certain individual feels as if being lost or like a tree
branch that has been separated from the tree and doesn’t recognize (know)
its origin!
A young Ezidi published an
article in which he states that the German government is showing a
negligence on the educational side towards the Kurdish community and that
its internal policy towards the Kurds, among them the Yezidis, the German
authorities are reflecting its economic and strategic interests with the
states which occupy Kurdistan. For instance, the German government doesn’t
allow T.V. or radio programs to be transmitted in Kurdish, as it is the
case with other foreign communities and there is no institute or a
department for Kurdish studies at German universities and institutes. and
it is very rare to find a kindergarten for Kurdish children and they are
not taught in their native language. There are also no official
translators working with the authorities related to issues of
foreigners…etc. Also, the German authorities are adopting the same
attitudes the Turkish state takes towards the Kurds and don’t allow the
registration of the Kurdish newborn children in Germany under Kurdish
names.
Since languages are very
important carriers of heritage, literature and the history from a
generation of a nation to another one, in addition, the above mentioned
methods will affect the spread of the Kurdish culture and heritage
negatively in a way that the new generations of the Yezidis will alienate
themselves from the history and the heritage of their ancestors generally
and from the people of Kurdistan especially, as a result, the crisis of
personal acquaintance with each other among the generations themselves and
between them and the outside world, other nations, will be deepened.
The second
crisis which the new generation faces in Diaspora ( for instance, in
Germany) is the religious crisis, but we need to admit in advance that
European constitutions and the German Constitution doesn’t discriminate
against religions and beliefs, on the contrary they protect and respect
the freedom of religions and beliefs. The reasons for the crisis is in
part chronic and goes back with its roots to the Yezidi civil society and
the ruling regimes at home in general and in the other part is fresh (new)
and came to existence paralleling the western culture.
I will try here to summarize
the reasons for the crisis in the following points:
-
The huge difference between
school curriculums in Yezidis’ lands of origin ( Turkey, Iraq and Syria)
where Islamic and national tendencies are dominant, and the secular
western curriculums, this leads to the alienation of the pupils from their
culture, and their religion and make them melting away in the culture of
the western societies where they live.
-
The Yezidi pupil was, and still
attending the Islam lessons in
Turkey and Syria,
but in Iraq, the Arabic part of it, he/she was leaving Islam lessons
under the former regime and before that. In Germany the Yezidi pupil is
given the choice, either to attend the Christian lessons or not. In all
these cases, the pupil will suffer from the inferiority complex and feels
some kind of disorder, even some insult and this will affect his
general behavior and his subconscious.
-
Islamic legal procedures are
imposed on the Yezidis at home ( Turkey, Iraq and Syria) in personal
status cases like marriage contracts, divorce and inheritance cases and
they are not recognized as witnesses because they are regarded as
followers of non- written religions, therefore they are (infidels). But in
the west ( for instance, in
Germany) its laws
are applied on the Yezidis, and they are allowed to complete their
marriage contracts in their churches according to the rules of the
Christian religion.
-
The weakness of the Yezidis’
religious and worldly leadership and their occupation only with their
private issues more than the issues of the Yezidis and resolving their
problems. Therefore the rights of the Yezidis are ignored especially at
home.
-
The absence of a unified sacred
religious book adopted by all Yezidis, this leads to confusion in
religious knowledge and rules. As a result, this leads too to the absence
of a unified religious discourse, both at home and abroad.
-
The misunderstanding of
yezidian religion, as if it has only to do with the
past and with the belief in supernatural
issues…etc.
-
The problem of the new
generations in Diaspora lies in the fact that, they either do understand
nothing or very little about their religion, or they are not sure of their
knowledge. This creates (suspicion) and some sort of internal
psychological struggle which makes them concerned and disturbed.
-
If the gatherings of Yezidis in
villages has been one of the factors which helped them to survive and to
keep their heritage, rituals and traditions, but their spread in cities
and townships and the villages of countries they migrated to, has weakened
the bases of their religious, social and national entity.
-
Being busy with their work and
leaving their children for hours alone would keep them away from their
parents and from their traditions, rituals and religious teachings.
-
Since the Yezidis have no rules
like wearing headscarves and have little religious background and no
sacred book to depend on, their male and female students attending
Christian school lessons would be easily influenced by the new
education (the Christian). And get alienated from their own
origin.
·
Clash of cultures
Moving
from its homeland, the old Yezidi generation has carried almost all his
oriental values with all its positive and negative aspects, with itself to
Diaspora. We can say that the
overwhelming majority of these values and traditions are not in line with
the positive and secular laws of the west. For instance, cases like murder
and revenge and the point of view as regarding sex and honor concepts, and
marriages issues that some times take place even without their consent and
demanding dowry, discriminations based on gender and polygamy, freedom
restrictions imposed on children and the youth by fathers and the society
and trying to impose conducts of a patriarchal authority in a society of
freedoms and laws, the control of Authoritarianism tendencies and the
phenomena such as hatred and suspicion against others and hypocrisy
...etc. we can also say that the Yezidi who moves from his homeland to the
western countries, is like some one who moves from a total darkness to a
highly illuminated area! But at the end this light may kill the dignity
and the pride of the oriental human being, whether he likes it or not..!!
the
situation of Yezidism, as a closed and non-missionary religious minority
depends one internal marriages, is very difficult. The negligent
traditional Yezidi would not be punished in Diaspora for refusing eating
lettuce and pork or for not clothing in blue, not shaving his moustache,
not wearing the ring ( Tuk, Al- Zik), urinating while he stands...etc all
this is tolerated and he will not be punished for his violations. However,
we are confronted with taking decisions in cases related to the pillars of
the Yezidi religion, are they dealt with as the ancestors complied with,
or should we find a solution for these complexes? For instance, how should
we react towards marriages occurring between a Yezidi and non-Yezidi (
both genders)?
I
would like to mention only some current confirmed cases - without
referring to their names - in Germany:
1-
During a marriage party, I saw
with my own eyes in the city of Bielefeld a Yezidi man from Kurdistan of
Turkey with his German wife and their son (daughter) carried by the mother
of the Yezidi man and the rest of the family without raising any attention
or causing any refusal or condemnation.
2-
The marriage of a Yezidi girl
from Turkey secretly to a non-Yezidi and giving
birth to a child. I don’t think that their relatives were not being aware
of that. And the marriage of another Yezidi girl from Turkey ( resident of
North-Rhine ) to a German, and another Yezidi girl from Syria to a Moslem
Arab from Algeria, and another Yezidi girl from the city of Hanover
returning to her relatives after staying for many months with a
non-Yezidi!!
3-
The formal marriage of two
Yezidi young men from Lower Saxony last year ( gay marriage), both live
now in Germany!!
4-
A girl left her family and
lives now with another girl ( lesbian marriage)
5-
Two young Yezidi men from Iraqi
Kurdistan married formally to a German woman and a Russian woman, one of
them has child, and they are in touch with their families. The two young
men and their families are proud of this relationship!!
6-
A Yezidi man from
Iraq and another one from Syria have killed last year
their wives in the city of Bielefeld because they were not obeying them as
it was the case at home!!
7-
A
Yezidi woman files a case against her husband for raping her, and the
court sentencing him to three years imprisonment in addition to punishing
by a big fine. And a German court imposing a four and a half year sentence
upon a Yezidi from Syria carrying the German citizenship based on a rape
case filed by his wife!!
8-
A Yezidi mother from a village
close to the city of Celle commits suicide
because of her sons disobedience, and her belief that his problems will
stain the name of the family!! And the case of a Yezidi man from Celle
late 2006 who commits suicide because of the anti tribal and religious
traditions’ behavior of his son!
9-
I heard from many young men
about the (initiation of an electronic get –to- know –each-other room
chat) for Yezidi youth from of both genders ( young boys and girls) to get
acquainted with ( know) each other called (students’ forum), and some
times a young Moslem boy enters the room and alleges to be a Yezidi and
dating a Yezidi girl and they become friends and may be get married to
each other. This may be disclosed later! And there is a group of Yezidi
youth calling itself ( Party Govand) or the “Yezidi disco” arranging
parties for Yezidi young girls and boys!!
One of
the giant (big) crisis which arises in Diaspora is the huge gap between
the oriental, tribal and strict religious education of the old generation
and what the new generation learns and confronts in the countries of
immigration. The old generation wants to transport, or even impose, the
tribal, nomadic and religious values on the new generation and creates a
long list of taboos without presenting a convincing arguments for them to
a degree that just a school excursion or a cafe or a swimming outing by
the boy or the girl with his or her classmates is regarded as one of the
prohibited things! These practices leave a negative impact on the
psychology of the new generation and creates social problems and even
psychological crises for them because the youth can’t harmonize between
the wishes of their parents and their wishes in the framework of the open
societies they live in. So, they have nothing left other than a reusal
against all the values of their fathers and grandfathers. In return,
psychological illnesses, heart attacks and strokes spread among parents
when they lose their parental control and when they feel that they are no
longer wanted and they are not, both socially and economically,
productive!!
New generations aspirations and problems
There
are three complexes which could (perhaps) lead to a total decay and
destruction of the Yezidi society in Diaspora if we didn’t deal with it in
a rational way or we didn’t find acceptable solutions for them, these are:
Firstly: the concept of dignity, honor and sex: there is a huge gap
between the point of view of an easterner and the European point of view
about these issues. They are sensitive matters and it couldn’t be
discussed among the members of the old generation, and the new generation
looks at them through European eyes. This means the destabilization of the
easterner Yezidi family.
Secondly: the search for freedom: this means in its simplest sense,
exiting the family and patriarchal ring and the cocoon of tribal habits.
I do believe that the reason why so many Yezidi women, girls and youths
joining the PKK is their belief that they will find the full freedom
there, but as soon as they enter this unknown world they will be
confronted with a totally different reality where freedom and democracy
can’t live together under one roof furthermore, withdrawal and leaving the
political party is no more possible!
Thirdly: profit and the hunt for wealth: the hunt for wealth (greed) is
spoiling morals in general. The Diaspora Yezidi can’t harmonize between
his long hours of hard work and his efforts to follow the education of his
children, according to eastern ethics and religious teachings, especially,
as we know, these children and youth are under the influence of
kindergarten, schools, the street, television and under the influence of
the media and seductive sexual adds. This means that the authority of the
external environment is much more powerful than of the parents.
Fourthly: the supporting law: there is a basic point added to the three
complexes which causes the disintegration of the oriental family (
including the Yezidi family) and that is the positive and the secular laws
of the western countries which support the human rights of human beings as
they are fetus in a mother's womb to the rights of the elderly. These
western laws and ethics are in contradiction with the oriental ethics and
laws, thus the new generation is complying with the laws of the countries
of residency not with the ones imposed by their parents and relatives or
by ancestors’ religion, and any pressure exerted on the children by
parents or on women by husbands will push them to seek the protection of
law.
Future prospects
the
Yezidis’ ability, despite lacking a written sacred book, to keep the
continuity of their religion under injustice and annihilation attempts at
home draws our attention. But in Diaspora, security and stability is
leading to a slow death of that solid society at home!!
Based
on this simplified map of the above crisis and complexes, it seems
difficult to believe that Diaspora Yezidis / Germany would be able to keep
even 30% of the same teachings and rituals of their ancestors’ religion of
the old generation.
I expect that after 70-80 years
from now, Yezidi religion in Diaspora will experience serious changes, and
I see that the issue of accepting reforms is very essential, moreover, it
is a way to achieve the continuity of this belief for a longer time
through writing down exciting stories for children in their native
language and finding learning and educational ways suites the new
generation in Diaspora. It is also important to agree to find an elected
Yezidi leadership in Europe to lead the Yezidis in Diaspora in agreement
with cultural centers, unions and houses created in Europe which present
services deserving appreciation and respect. Without their informative and
educational activities and efforts, Yezidism could descend quickly to
loss.
References:
1-
The Qirtal family ( Amin and
his brother Abdullah ) was from Shamzi village in Diarbaker province or
Yezidis coming to Germany as workers
2-
The second delegation consisted
of: Mrs. Kisla Bris and Mr. Verner Bris and Mr. Alexander Steinberg: they
presented a report dated 09/1989
3-
See the meeting of the
journalist Khidir Al- Domly with the Turkish researcher ( Ahmad Tashqin)
during his visit to Iraqi Kurdistan, the electronic newspaper Asda of
28/11/2006
4-
Darwish Sharu, the personal
identity crisis of the Yezidi youth living in
Germany. Lalesh magazine, issue Nr. 2-3 year 1994 Duhok page 175
