Yezidi

The Yezidi belong to a religion with roots back to the times preceding our era, in Mithraism, the teachings of the Persian sage Zoroaster - and in the old nature religions. There are close to one million Yezidi in the world. Half of them live in Northern Iraq, others in Turkey, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Europe. All Yezidi are Kurds. The religion is based on oral traditions, and it is threatened both from within and from the outside.
You cannot become a Yezidi. You are born a Yezidi, and you remain a Yezidi. Consequently, the Yezidi are not proselytizing. Marriage to a non-Yezidi is prohibited. The Yezidi have been persecuted, and have over the years been victims of 72 massacres, so-called fermans by the yezidis, the latest having occurred in August 2007. Two Yezidi villages in Sinjar, in Northwestern Iraq, were exposed to a terror attack in which 311 civilians were killed, 800 injured, 100 missed and 198 children left orphans. The situation is worsening for the Yezidi, and many of them are fleeing Northern Iraq. Under difficult conditions, filming was carried out in Northern Iraq in the autumn of 2007. The film sheds light on the background of this religious community, the threats they are facing, and the conditions for Yezidi refugees in Norway. (Norsk Filminstitutt)