The attacks perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS) on the various ethno-religious communities living in Nineveh Province since the summer of 2014 constitute genocide. Now, three years later, IS has been pushed out of its main stronghold in Mosul and is on the verge of losing its last urban centres. Hence, as the dust settles and the fog of war is slowly lifting, the question of how Iraq's society may seek to recover invariably arises. Exactly how previously hostile communities can come to terms with the past and reconcile their differences remains a complex process heavily subject to the local...
Yazidis are one of the oldest ethnic and religious communities indigenous to the Middle East. The majority of Yazidis live in the north-west of Iraq, in areas surrounding Shingal7 Mountain and Shekhan district. Additionally, there are some Yazidi villages and towns in Talkeef and Bashiqa District, and in Duhok Governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Although there is a dearth of reliable statistics on demography, community estimates state there are about 550,000 — 600,000 Yazidis in Iraq.8 Yazidis are considered the second-largest religious minority in Iraq, after the Christians.
The Yazidi community is structured according to social classes...
The findings of this study are based on a combination of 20 semi-structured, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Over the course of several weeks in the summer of 2016, MERI staff conducted interviews with spiritual and political leaders, activists and intellectuals from the Yazidi community. The formal interviews mainly took place in Erbil, Duhok, Sheekhan district and the Yazidi spiritual centre in Lalesh. Subjects were interviewed in places they felt most comfortable to talk such as their home, workplace, hotel room or restaurant garden. Interviewees were selected as to ensure the ultimate sample represents a...
Despite its ubiquity in rhetoric concerning post-conflict stabilisation efforts, the meaning of a pivotal concept like "reconciliation" often remains unclear.41 There is a general consensus among scholars and experts that conceptual clarity regarding reconciliation can only be attained through analysing the context in which it is to take place, and by understanding the views of the communities which ultimately attribute meaning to the term. In the absence of a conclusive definition, international peacebuilders and local authorities aiming to improve inter-community relationships run the risk of imposing preconceived notions of reconciliation, ill-fitting the local context, destining their efforts to fail from...
