Young Êzîdî in the Diaspora: Identity Between Worlds

For the first time in history, an entire generation of Êzîdî is growing up in Germany that has largely been socialised outside the homeland. They attend German schools and universities, often speak German better than Kurmancî, organise themselves in associations and on social media, and at the same time carry forward one of the oldest religious traditions of the Middle East. This generation is building something new: an Êzîdî identity that draws on both worlds.

This article describes how young Êzîdî are renegotiating religion, language and community, and it is written especially for them: much of this is your own story.

1. Growing Up Between Worlds

Germany is home to the largest Êzîdî diaspora in the world. Since German statistics do not record religious affiliation, only estimates exist: depending on the source, roughly 150,000 to 250,000 Êzîdî; the Central Council of Êzîdî and media outlets cited around 250,000 in 2024. The main centres are in Lower Saxony (the Oldenburg and Celle areas) and in North Rhine-Westphalia, for instance in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (worldwide figures: diaspora demographics; background: Êzîdî in Germany).

Migration came in waves: from the 1960s onwards as “guest workers”, from the 1980s and 1990s as asylum seekers from Turkey, and from 2014/15 as a large refugee movement from Iraq, after the genocide committed by the so-called “Islamic State” against the Êzîdî of Şingal (Sinjar), the main settlement area in north-western Iraq.

Today, generations with very different experiences live side by side: grandparents from the villages of the homeland, parents who carried the weight of flight and starting over, and children for whom Germany is simply home. Ever since Philip Kreyenbroek’s generational study of 2009, still the standard work today, religious studies has been asking: how does the perception of one’s own religion change when one grows up in the diaspora? More recent fieldwork (Doboš 2020/21, Stuewe 2025) shows that the young generation is giving its own productive answers.

2. Passing On an Oral Religion: Without a Written Canon

Êzîdîsm is a primarily orally transmitted religion. Religious knowledge lives in the Qewlên (sacred hymns), in narratives and in the practice of religious specialists, not in a written canon like the Bible or the Quran (in detail: Qewl tradition).

In the diaspora, the classic chain of transmission comes under pressure. What flowed naturally in the homeland, through family, through the relationships with Şêx and Pîr (the hereditary religious castes) and through village closeness, has to be actively organised in the diaspora. Kreyenbroek’s generational comparison showed as early as 2009: many younger people know the religious practice, festivals, fasting days, rituals, but less of the tradition behind it; and they wish for something the oral tradition never envisaged in this form: explainable, “learnable” religious knowledge. The fieldwork of Natalia Doboš adds: the critical thinking learned in European schools makes it harder for some young people simply to accept inherited taboos.

This is not decline, it is the engine of one of the most exciting developments in today’s Êzîdîsm: the debate on scripturalisation. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the tradition has been actively textualised (Omarkhali 2017). Within the community there is open discussion about whether there should be a written canon: the Society of Êzîdî Academics (GEA) ran the online survey “Scripturalisation of Êzîdîsm?” on the question, and TH Köln offered a compact seminar “from oral tradition to scripturalisation”. Whether, how far and by whom the tradition is put into writing is an open intra-Êzîdî discourse: and the very fact that it is being conducted is itself a sign of a living religion.

Where old paths of transmission grow thinner, new ones have emerged: since the 1990s, cultural associations have taken over religious education in many places, new places of learning for an old religion. And the young generation is being studied by researchers from its own ranks: Prof. Dr. Şefik Tagay developed the “Êzîdî Identity Inventory” (EZI), the first instrument for measuring Êzîdî identity.

3. Language: Kurmancî Between Mother Tongue and Third Language

The mother tongue of most Êzîdî is Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish). In parts of the diaspora, above all among Êzîdî from the former Soviet Union, and increasingly in Germany too, the name “Êzdîkî” is used for their own language: for some, a religious-ethnic marker with a name of its own; for others, linguistically simply Kurmancî. Both views exist side by side within the community.

In many families, language practice is shifting: German is becoming the dominant family language, and Kurmancî is turning into a second or third language for the second and third generations. Quantitative studies specifically on Êzîdî youth are still lacking, a research gap, but the qualitative research (Kreyenbroek, Doboš) describes the tendency clearly. For the transmission of religion it weighs doubly: the Qewlên have been handed down in an old, poetic Kurmancî; whoever loses the language loses direct access to the heart of the tradition.

Yet there are counter-movements, often carried by the young themselves: language courses in associations, learning materials, online offerings. On the history of the writing systems of Kurmancî/Êzdîkî, see alphabet history; anyone who wants to actively learn or refresh the language will find a free learning resource of this portal at lernen.ezdixan.de. A language can be reclaimed, stanza by stanza, conversation by conversation.

4. Marriage and Belonging: The Endogamy Debate

Hardly any question occupies young Êzîdî in the diaspora as much as the marriage rules. Traditionally, Êzîdî marry within the community and within the three castes (Mirîd, Şêx, Pîr). According to the traditional understanding, marriage outside the religion leads to exclusion, a religion into which one can only be born is not one that can be married into.

These rules are being wrestled with today within the community, and both positions are legitimate Êzîdî perspectives from the inside:

The protective perspective. For many, endogamy is not a rigid relic but a survival strategy: a small religious community persecuted for centuries also secured its existence by guarding its boundaries. After genocide and displacement, many feel the rule all the more as protection against the “disappearance” of the people. The anthropologist Allison Stuewe, who spent 22 months doing fieldwork among Iraqi Êzîdî in Germany, found the apt formula for this: “Marrying Against Erasure”: marriage decisions as a conscious strategy against cultural annihilation; not against love, but for the survival of something that came close to being wiped out.

The lived-reality perspective. The same rules that stabilised the community in Iraq can put it under pressure in Western Europe: the marriage market within community and caste is small, life plans are more individual, love across religious boundaries is part of the reality of open societies, and German residence policy demands “integration achievements” from young Êzîdî while the community expects continuity. Research documents the side effects soberly: generational conflicts and reluctance towards arranged marriages. Diaspora intellectuals are now also putting the ban on exogamy openly up for discussion, and in Iraq itself, mixed-faith families come under pressure from both sides; so the tension is by no means a purely “diaspora problem”.

What is remarkable is what is moving: in the diaspora, the momentum for reform is growing precisely around the marriage rules. At the Stuttgart conference “Yazidi Identity in Transition” (Weltethos Foundation, 2025), the capacity for reform and adaptation was discussed as “vital for the continuity” of Êzîdîsm. The debate itself is not a sign of disintegration but of a religion that is alive: not “moderns” against “backward ones”, but a community that, after the almost-worst, is renegotiating what belonging means.

5. Şingal 2014 and the Generation of Remembrance

3 August 2014, the day the so-called “Islamic State” attacked Şingal, has shaped the young generation like no other event. In the Êzîdî tradition of remembrance, the genocide of 2014 counts as the 74th Ferman. Ferman refers to the campaigns of persecution and annihilation throughout history; the number 74 is a memory tradition that has grown over time, not an exactly counted historical statistic, it expresses how deeply the experience of repeated persecution is anchored in collective memory (context: genocides).

Out of this experience, a generation of remembrance and engagement has emerged:

• 3 August as a day of remembrance. Every year, the beginning of the genocide is commemorated worldwide; in Germany, the Central Council of Êzîdî hosts the central commemoration in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. At international commemorative panels (Free Yezidi Foundation), young activists explicitly speak about the needs of the next generation.
• Youth organisations. The Êzîdî Youth Germany e.V. (ÊJD) (founded in 2017, with a predecessor association since 2011) is a nationwide platform for cultural identity, education and participation. The Yezidi Youth Oldenburg has been part of the Yezidi Forum Oldenburg since 1993 and is a member of the federal association djo, German Youth in Europe. The Central Council of Êzîdî in Germany (ZÊD), founded in Bielefeld in 2017, is building up its own youth association with full-time youth and women’s work. Seminars such as “How do we strengthen Êzîdî youth?” (IDA e.V.) combine empowerment, organisational development and trauma processing.
• Advocacy with results. In January 2023, the German Bundestag recognised the IS crimes against the Êzîdî as genocide: welcomed by Yazda as the result of joint civil-society work. Germany also conducted the world’s first criminal trials for the genocide against the Êzîdî; Baden-Württemberg took in 1,100 surviving women and children through a special quota programme.

Ten years after the genocide, the community formulated clear demands: anchoring the genocide in schools and universities, a permanent memorial, criminal prosecution of all perpetrators, around 200,000 Êzîdî still live as internally displaced persons in camps in Iraq. Irfan Ortac of the Central Council puts it in a nutshell: “You can only fight racism if you are informed.” That also applies to the old stigma of the “devil worshipper” accusation in schoolyards, a defamation that has nothing to do with Êzîdî theology: Tawûsî Melek, the Peacock Angel, is the highest of the angels and no “devil figure”.

6. Believing Digitally: Archives, Social Media, Knowledge Online

For a generation that grew up with the smartphone, religion also takes place online, scripturalisation and digitalisation run in parallel. Three digital spaces shape the picture:

• Digital archives. The organisation Yazda runs a video archive of the tangible and intangible Êzîdî cultural heritage, explicitly as a resource for the diaspora.
• Scholarship online. The research blog Yezidi Stories (Johnny Cheung, Inalco) documents the Qewl corpus publicly on the web; the Yezidi Studies Center bundles academic work online. Religious knowledge that used to be hard to access is now searchable.
• Social media as a space of transmission. The ÊJD is active on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, with explanations of holidays, commemorative and educational content. Religion “in your pocket”, for many, the first place where they find structured knowledge about their own Êzîdîsm.

An honest caveat: systematic research on Êzîdî social-media religiosity is still in its infancy. What is certain: the generation once feared as the “generation of tradition loss” is currently building the largest publicly accessible collection of knowledge in Êzîdî history.

7. Voices and Role Models

The young diaspora has produced voices that are heard far beyond the community.

Ronya Othmann (born 1993 in Munich, her father is of Êzîdî-Kurdish origin from northern Syria) is the most important literary voice of the young diaspora generation. Her debut novel “Die Sommer” (“The Summers”, 2020) tells the story of Leyla between the Bavarian provinces and a north Syrian village, the duality so many young Êzîdî know, transformed into literature. Her novel “Vierundsiebzig” (“Seventy-Four”, 2024) makes the 74th Ferman and the work of remembrance itself its subject. Othmann received, among other awards, the audience prize of the Bachmann Competition (2019) and the MDR Literature Prize, Êzîdî voices have become visible in the German cultural scene.

Zemfira Dlovani (born 1979), a specialist lawyer for social law in Koblenz, was a founding member of the Central Council of Êzîdî in Germany in 2017 and has been its First Chairwoman since 2021. She represents Êzîdî witnesses in genocide trials in Germany and the United Kingdom. That a woman leads Germany’s most important Êzîdî advocacy organisation stands for a broader change: Êzîdî women are increasingly taking on leadership roles in public life (more: women in Êzîdîsm).

Nadia Murad (born 1993 in Kocho near Şingal) made her story public as a survivor of the genocide in her autobiography “The Last Girl” (2017) and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. Her organisation Nadia’s Initiative is rebuilding Şingal, schools, a women’s centre, teacher training. She is the most visible young Êzîdî woman in the world and, for many, proof that survival can become the power to shape things.

In music, the situation is different: Êzîdî musical culture is preserved above all through the Qewwal tradition, archives and recording projects; individual young musicians of the diaspora are not yet reliably documented.

8. Mental Health and Resilience

Talking about emotional burdens is difficult in many families, and yet the topic belongs here. What matters is the direction of view: this is not about a “deficit” of the young generation, but about the legacy of persecution: and about the duty of the care systems to do justice to this legacy.

The research of Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, chief psychologist of the Baden-Württemberg special quota programme, describes the traumatisation of the Êzîdî on three levels: individual, collective and transgenerational (Kizilhan & Noll-Hussong 2017). Even someone born in Germany can carry the family’s history of persecution, through stories, silences, the fears of parents. Clinical data from immediately after the flight of 2014 show the scale: among the Êzîdî children and adolescents examined, psychological burdens were found across the board, sleep disorders, depression, post-traumatic symptoms. At the same time, research documents considerable barriers to access to psychological care: language hurdles, a lack of culturally sensitive services, long waiting times.

And yet that is only half the story. The same research emphasises resilience: the capacity not to break under the experience but to grow with it. Kizilhan put it this way in Stuttgart in 2025: “Trauma can destroy a people, or let it grow.” The evidence for the growing is everywhere in this article: youth organisations that think trauma processing and empowerment together; a generation that bears witness to the genocide before the Bundestag, in the Paulskirche and in novels. Seeking help, from counselling centres, therapists, trusted people, is not a sign of weakness but part of precisely this strength.

9. Outlook: Not Between Worlds: From Both Worlds

In the end, the formula of an “identity between worlds” falls short: research and community practice consistently show a generation building identity from both worlds.

The Stuttgart conference of 2025 records clear progress in education, community building and political participation; young Êzîdî are increasingly networking transnationally. Academisation is advancing, women are taking on leadership roles, from the chair of the Central Council to the Nobel Peace Prize. And the great debates, scripturalisation, marriage rules, new institutions, are read by researchers not as decline, but as the diaspora’s active achievement of transformation and survival.

A religion that was meant to be annihilated in 2014 is, twelve years later, being documented, debated, digitalised, taught and lived by its youngest generation, in Kurmancî and in German, in Laliş and in the Paulskirche, in the Qewl and on the web. This is Şerfedîn, carried forward into a new age.

Sources

All sources were retrieved and checked on 11 June 2026. Population figures are estimates; “74 Ferman” refers to a tradition of remembrance, not an exact historical count.

1. Kreyenbroek, Philip G. et al.: Yezidism in Europe: Different Generations Speak about their Religion. Harrassowitz 2009, https://books.google.com/books/about/Yezidism_in_Europe.html?id=E4FpDDbrvqkC
2. Omarkhali, Khanna: The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written. Harrassowitz 2017, https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_1833.ahtml
3. Kizilhan, J. I. / Noll-Hussong, M.: “Individual, collective, and transgenerational traumatization in the Yazidi.” BMC Medicine 15:198 (2017), https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0965-7
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6. Stuewe, Allison T.: Marrying Against Erasure. Diss., University of Arizona 2025, https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/675804
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11. Weltethos Foundation: “Yazidi Identity in Transition” (conference report, Stuttgart, April 2025), https://www.weltethos.org/en/yazidi-identity-in-transition/
12. GEA: EZI identity inventory, survey “Scripturalisation of Êzîdîsm?”, https://www.gea-ev.net/wissenschaft-forschung/ezi/
13. TH Köln: compact seminar “The Êzîdî, from oral tradition to scripturalisation”, https://www.th-koeln.de/hochschule/kompakt-seminar-die-eziden--von-der-oralen-tradition-zur-verschriftlichung_86867.php
14. IDA e.V.: seminar “How do we strengthen Êzîdî youth?”, https://www.idaev.de/
15. Êzîdische Jugend Deutschland e.V. (ÊJD), https://ezidischejugend.com/
16. Central Council of Êzîdî in Germany (ZÊD), board, https://zentralrat-eziden.com/vorstand
17. Yezidi Youth Oldenburg (djo federal association), https://djo.de/yezidische-jugend/
18. Free Yezidi Foundation: genocide commemoration (2021), https://freeyezidi.org/news-updates/fyf-seven-year-commemoration-of-the-yezidi-genocide/
19. Yazda: culture/video archive, https://www.yazda.org/culture · Bundestag recognition, Jan. 2023, https://www.yazda.org/recognition-of-yazidi-genocide-by-german-parliament
20. USHMM: “On the 10th Anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide…” (2024), https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/blog/on-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-yazidi-genocide-concerns-about-justice
21. Nadia’s Initiative, https://www.nadiasinitiative.org/ · Wikipedia (en): “Nadia Murad”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Murad
22. Sonntagsblatt: “Zehn Jahre nach dem Genozid: Jesiden fordern kulturelle Anerkennung in Deutschland” (2024), https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/kultur/zehn-jahre-nach-dem-genozid-jesiden-fordern-kulturelle-anerkennung-deutschland
23. Wikipedia (de): “Die Sommer”, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Sommer · taz on “Vierundsiebzig” (2024), https://taz.de/Roman-Vierundsiebzig-von-Ronya-Othmann/!5996391/
24. ÊzîdîPress: “Ezdiki, the language of the Ezidis?”, https://www.ezidipress.com/en/ezdiki-the-language-of-the-ezidis/
25. ODI/HPN: “Mixed-faith families at risk in Iraq”, https://odihpn.org/en/publication/mixed-faith-families-at-risk-in-iraq-rejected-by-the-muslims-and-by-the-yezidis/
26. Wikipedia (en): “Yazidis in Germany”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidis_in_Germany
27. Yezidi Stories (Johnny Cheung), https://yes.hypotheses.org/ · Yezidi Studies Center, https://www.yezidistudiescenter.org/

This article is part of the multilingual Êzdîxan wiki.