Humanitarian aid workers’ knowledge of minority cultures in Iraqi Kurdistan

Abstract

The Yezidi population in northern Iraq has faced genocide by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), have been driven from their homes, and forced to take refugee anywhere that is deemed safe. The current study focused on the humanitarian organizations that provided aid to this population to understand if humanitarian aid workers had appropriate knowledge of the Yezidi culture. Questionnaires were completed by 37 local aid workers. Findings suggested that the aid workers did not have a sufficient understanding of the Yezidi culture due to the lack of cultural awareness training given by humanitarian organizations.