Nechirvan Barzani pledges to protect Yazidi rights on Jama

Shafaq News- Erbil

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani pledged on Tuesday to protect the rights of Yazidis as the community began its main annual pilgrimage, the Jamaa feast.

"We will remain, as we have always been, the protectors and defenders of their rights and aspirations," Barzani said in a message to Yazidis in the Kurdistan Region, across Iraq and abroad. The Kurdistan Region, he added, would remain a place of peaceful coexistence for all communities.

Yazidis follow an ancient monotheistic faith and live mainly in northern Iraq, in the Kurdistan Region and the Sinjar district of Nineveh province. Jamaa, or the Feast of the Assembly, runs for seven days at the Lalish Temple in Duhok province, the faith's holiest site.

On Monday, Nineveh Governor Abdul Qader al-Dakhil gave Yazidi employees in the province's government offices a week off, from October 6 to 13, to take part in the celebrations.