Iraqui Yazidis: Case study about their changing gender roles

Abstract

The case study of Iraqi Yazidis and their changing gender roles and gender relations as a consequence of armed conflict and forced displacement is based on a field research conducted on the territory of northern Iraq in the Spring 2016. It identifies a complex crisis of Yazidi masculinity as a direct consequence of the armed conflict and forced displacement by the so called Islamic State in the Summer 2014 since Yazidi men have not beet able to fully fulfil their traditional roles and expectations: physically protect their families, women and communities; provide for their livelihood; protect tribal code of honour. Also the tribal and patriarchal authorities are in crisis and alienated from their communities as a direct consequence of the armed conflict, forced displacement and feeling of betrayal on part of the Yazidi population. The forced emancipation of Yazidi women is a direct consequence of the crisis of Yazidi men and an indirect consequence of the armed conflict and forced displacement and as such cannot be understood in isolation from the crisis of the traditional Yazidi manhood. The Yazidi women at least partly fulfil some of the traditional mens’ roles like providing livelihood for their families or even participating in the armed struggle against the Islamic State. Redefinition of domestic violence, divorce, and status of women liberated from the sexual slavery is also under way. However, the new dialectics between the crisis of the traditional masculinity and the emancipation of Yazidi women set in motion as a consequence of the armed conflict and forced displacement can become a self-sustaining mechanism even after the forces that have set it in motion disappear.