Legal analysis of Shengal mass graves: 857 bodies exhumed since 2019, only 296 Yazidi victims identified; 561 remain unidentified pending DNA matching amid calls for urgent reform.

Regarding this massacre, the survivor Kori Khalaf Ali (born 1968) spoke to us. Four members of her family were martyred in the 2007 car bombing attacks, including her husband. Kori is a mother of four daughters. After her husband’s death, she chose to raise her daughters and never remarry. Today, after the ISIS invasion, she has lost all four of her daughters, and many of her relatives were killed at the hands of the organization. She recounted her suffering and tragedy to us:
"At 6:00 AM on August 3, 2014, we left Tel Aziz for wells about 7 km away. We heard the sounds of gunfire. ISIS militants attacked us with a car; there were seven of them. Our men raised white flags. They told us, 'Do not be afraid; the men must hand over the weapons and mobile phones in their possession.' So, they surrendered the weapons and phones. Then they demanded our money and gold, and we gave it to them. Then they said, 'The older women must go into one room, and women under forty with the girls in another room, because we need to speak with the men.' We followed their orders.
After fifteen minutes, three of our men entered one room, while the other three remained in the courtyard, and the seventh was near the car. Not even half an hour passed before they opened fire on one of our men near his car. Then they entered the other room, and we heard the sound of gunfire from inside and the screams of our men. All the women were screaming in the tightly locked rooms. Then they shot the rest of our men in the courtyard. This is how they carried out their crime against the Al-Kharou family, leaving no adult men alive except for the survivor Jamil Jatto Kharou (born 1965) from Tel Aziz, who happened to be in Duhok as a taxi driver on the Tel Aziz–Duhok route during the gruesome massacre by the terrorists."
List of Martyrs:
Ato Jado Kharou (1951)
Khalil Jado Kharou (1968)
Barakat Mahmoud Kharou (1969)
Mirza Mahmoud Kharou (1979)
Murad Mahmoud Kharou (1975)
Farhan Barakat Kharou (1992)
Sami Jando Kharou (1993)
Farman Barakat Mahmoud Kharou (1990)
Sabri Ato Jado Kharou (1981)
Abdo Sabri Ato Jado Kharou (1990)
Salem Sabri Ato Jado Kharou (1995)
Aishan Sharaf Ajool (1974)
Kori continued: "As a result of our screaming, they opened the door for us, and we were stunned to see that they had exterminated our men. Then they forced the women [into vehicles]..."
[Additional Names Listed]:
Nazdar Murad Mahmoud Kharou (1997)
Samira Mirza Mahmoud Kharou (1999)
Nadia Ismail Hassan (2000)
Suad Dawood Jatto Kharou (1998)
Talwan Dawood Jatto Kharou (2000)
Seifi Haji Elias (1995)
Ahlam Hassan Sido (1996)
Khalida Obeid Khader (1996)
Samia Jando (who had returned from Fallujah a few days prior)
Infants:
Burhan Qasim Hamid (4 months), Mother: Khalida Sharif
Hani Hadi Ato (1 year), Mother: Shammi Elias Rasho
Maher Ato (10 days old, born 23/7/2014), Mother: Ahlam Hassan Sido

Dr. Mahmoud Mardini stated in a radio interview on the program "Caravan" on November 8, 2017, that the Ottoman Archive spans from the year 1299 to 1924, a period of approximately 725 years. This archive contains about 500 million documents, manuscripts, and books, including 950 documents related to the Yazidis, which contain fatwas (religious decrees) legalizing the killing of Yazidis. These documents also mention Yazidi tribes, their way of life, and the Lalesh Temple.
He stated that he obtained these documents, which are written in Old Ottoman, and they require accurate and recognized translation. After being translated into several languages, including Arabic, English, and German, they are to be notarized to become internationally recognized official documents.
He also mentioned that there are documents concerning the Armenians, yet many major powers have not recognized that genocide due to a lack of sufficient documentation. Based on his experience as an employee in the Ottoman Archive, he notes that some claim the number of firmans (Ottoman royal decrees) is 72, but this number refers to the period between 1514 and 1917, with the final Ottoman firman led by Ibrahim Pasha against Sinjar, Sheikhan, Bashiqa, and Bahzani. However, he notes that the number cited by the Yazidis is that there were 360 genocide campaigns against them.
The title of the book he authored is Yazidism and the Memory of Tragedies: A Testimony to History, which consists of 1,500 pages in A4 format. The book covers customs, traditions, and history so that Turks, Arabs, and Persians may know that Yazidism is a monotheistic religion that predates Abrahamic religions. The book is set to be translated into several languages.
He says that some Arab writers, such as Abdul Razzaq Al-Hasani, Abbas Al-Azzawi, and others, were unjust toward the Yazidis and that their writings contributed to the recent genocide. He also mentions that when a foreign journalist asked him about the recent 2014 genocide, he replied, "Leave this genocide aside, and come with me to the caves of Mount Sinjar, where there are the bones of Yazidi children and women who were burned."
He points out that the first fatwa for the extermination of the Yazidis was issued in 1560 by the Mufti Abu Saud al-Imadi.

https://sematv.net/ar/2026/07/%d8%b3%d9%85%d8%a7-165?fbclid=IwdGRleATEPTpwZG9mA2ZkaWQWUKnDoJ33DIcJcSv98rFw45fHQh9HU2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7CBxGsrgo2Csm74wTNt2qNCE74OEZNbN82zQqlfs7qyTKp6tfFk-LDLsOLEg_aem_uriXQziGEBtrI_VNs3-k2A

A conference on the Yazidi genocide and democratic integration of Sinjar concluded, examining constitutional pathways to protect Ezidi rights and end military pressure on the region.

I’m a Pîr myself, and I’ve been reflecting on our place in the diaspora lately. Even living in Germany, where our community is quite large, I find that I almost never meet other Pîr outside of my own immediate family or relatives. When I look at the wider diaspora, especially outside of Germany, it feels even rarer.
I know we make up a smaller percentage of the total Yazidi population compared to Murids and Shexs but is there more to it? I’m curious if anyone else has experienced this "siloed" social dynamic. Is it just the geography of the diaspora, or is there a shift in how we interact with our own caste as we integrate into Western societies?

Would love to hear your thoughts or if others have had a similar experience.

Young people in Shingal are documenting and actively preserving Yazidi folk music, oral traditions, and cultural practices at risk of being lost following the ISIS genocide.

A woman accused of slavery offences while she was in Syria supporting Islamic State has been refused bail.
It is alleged Zeinab Ahmad's father bought a Yazidi teenager for $US10,000 and kept her as a slave.
A court has heard the alleged victim described Ms Ahmad as the "deputy" of the house.

After 12 years of displacement following the 2014 genocide, Yazidi families from Sinjar's Duhok district return home to find their houses in ruins.

In every humanitarian tragedy, there is a face whose features encapsulate the details of the entire catastrophe. In the tragedy of the Yazidi genocide in Sinjar in 2014, "Daye Shime" (Mother Shime Dero Hassan) was that face, carrying the features of patience, loss, and bitter waiting.

Who is Daye Shime?

A Kurdish Yazidi woman who transformed from an ordinary mother into a global humanitarian symbol, she is known today as the "Mother of the Martyrs" and the "Symbol of the Sinjar Wound." Today, she lives in a tent in the "Chameshko" camp for displaced persons in the Zakho district.
The Magnitude of the Tragedy (Loss of 33 Family Members)

The tragedy was not ordinary; it was like uprooting a family tree from its roots. Daye Shime lost 33 members of her family who found themselves facing the brutality of the ISIS organization. Among the missing are 5 of her sons, along with their wives and children. Since August 2014, their whereabouts remain unknown, and their fate remains a mystery.

The Tent: A Shrine for Memory

Daye Shime did not surrender to despair; instead, she turned her humble tent in the camp into an annual center where displaced people and public figures meet to commemorate the genocide. Her tent has become a loud voice that refuses to let the victims be forgotten.

Her Constant Message to the World

Despite her old age and pain, Daye Shime does not stop appealing to the Iraqi government and the international community. Her demands are summarized as follows:

* Disclosing the fate of the missing and abducted.

* Opening mass graves to bury the victims with dignity.

* Reconstructing Sinjar to ensure the return of the displaced to their homes.

Documenting History

In recognition of her sacrifices, a book documenting her biography was recently published titled "Daye Shime Dero... Pains and Hopes" by author Khider Dero Al-Khansouri, so that her story remains a living witness for future generations of the depth of the Yazidi tragedy.
Daye Shime’s story is not just a tale from the past; it is a wound that still bleeds in the displacement tents, waiting for justice from both earth and heaven.

I read that Deniz Undav and his family had to leave Turkey in 1980 due to persecution. Is this true? I know they persecuted Greek Orthodox Christians but I didn’t know

Modern Turkish nationalists call him a PKK member and stateless.

In August 2014, darkness engulfed Shengal, and ISIS kidnapped the young Yazidi woman, Layla Talo, along with 19 members of her family. She was taken to Raqqa, Syria, beginning a harrowing three-year journey during which she endured torture, being sold in slave markets, and attempts to erase her identity. But the chains did not break her spirit; armed with hope, she wrested her freedom and the freedom of her two children from the heart of darkness. Layla did not choose silence after her escape; instead, she carried the voices of the victims and the missing to the world, culminating in her receiving the Mother Teresa International Peace Prize in 2018. Layla returned to prove to the world that the body may be imprisoned, but the free spirit cannot be defeated.

Can the name Yazidi be used solely to indicate an ethnic origin? For example, can someone whose grandmother was of Yazidi descent say, "I am 25% Yazidi"?