'I Won't Let Them Be Like Me': Ezidi Women's Agency and Identity after Genocide

Abstract

Ezidi people and their culture suffered greatly at the hands of Daesh before, during, and after the 2014 Sinjar (Shingal) Genocide. Since the resulting forced mass migration, the Ezidi community has undergone a significant amount of society-wide transformation. New avenues for agency have opened, and Shingali Ezidi women have taken these opportunities, expressing transformed identities, filling spaces previously unavailable, and altering ‘traditional’ gender roles. Through participation in numerous formal conversations with Shingali Ezidi women, I examine the origins and developments of changes in identity and agency according to the opinions, feelings, and behaviours which Shingali Ezidi women express.

This work looks at transformations in agency, both actualised and potential, as demonstrated by Shingali Ezidi women as well as expressed through narrative. An examination of expressions and performances of Shingali Ezidi women’s identity is particularly notable because of the subaltern position many Shingali Ezidi women experience under numerous layers of ‘minority’, e.g. ethnicity, religion, language, behaviour, etc. as well as gender. The aim of this study is to investigate the utilisation of subaltern identity to actualise agency among women after genocide.