Iraqi Yazidis seek recognition with new law

Shafaq News / The Yazidi bloc in the Iraqi parliament submitted a request to the speaker to legislate a law titled "Yazidi National Identity".

The speaker's office has approved the request, backed by signatures from 182 lawmakers.

The legislation, according to an official document, aims to achieve justice for the Yazidi community in Iraq who suffered a genocide perpetrated by ISIS in 2014.

The Yazidis are a religious minority inhabiting northern Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

They have faced persecution and discrimination for centuries, but their plight reached a horrific peak in 2014 when ISIS seized control of swathes of northern Iraq, including the Yazidis' homeland of Sinjar.

ISIS militants killed thousands of Yazidis, enslaved women and children, and destroyed Yazidi religious shrines.

The United Nations has recognized the events against the Yazidis as genocide.

The "Yazidi National Identity" law seeks to acknowledge the Yazidis as a distinct national identity within Iraq, granting them specific cultural, religious, and political rights.

The law also aims to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence among all components of Iraqi society.