- Country: Iraq and Syria (Al-Hasakah / Northeast Syria)
- Contact person: Sebastian Bloching bloching@elbarlament.org
- Project duration: December 2025 to August 2026
- Project objective: To document, preserve, and digitize Yazidi family, local, and cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria, strengthening the Yazidi Community Archive and ensuring Yazidi voices, histories, and living traditions are represented beyond the genocide narrative.
Archiving the Yezidi culture – Iraq and Syria
HÁWAR.help e. V. is a human rights organisation that was founded on the ashes of the Yezidi genocide. It implements development and education programs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany, as well as international awareness and education initiatives as well as political work – including on the revolution in Iran.
Yazidis are an indigenous religious minority with deep historical roots in northern Iraq and northeastern Syria. While international awareness of Yazidis has largely focused on the ISIS genocide (2014–2017), this narrow framing overlooks the community’s rich cultural heritage, social resilience, and continuity across generations.
The Yazidi Community Archive – Syria and Iraq seeks to address this gap by documenting everyday life, religious practices, community institutions, and family histories before, during, and after the genocide. By systematically collecting oral histories, photographs, videos, and cultural materials, the project contributes to a more holistic, community-led narrative.
Elbarlament builds on its previous consultancy for the Yazidi Community Archive and its long-standing experience in Iraq and Syria, particularly in Ninewa/Sinjar and Al-Hasakah, working closely with Yazidi communities using trauma-informed, ethical, and culturally sensitive approaches.
The project will begin with preparatory research and coordination to identify relevant families, community institutions, and cultural practices in Iraq and Syria, while reviewing existing archival material to refine the focus of each collection. This phase will also establish ethical procedures, informed consent, and community engagement.
Fieldwork will involve community-based, trauma-informed documentation through oral history interviews, photography, video recording, and the digitisation of personal and cultural materials. The project will work closely with Yazidi participants to ensure respectful representation and authentic voices.
All collected materials will be digitised, catalogued, and archived in accordance with established metadata standards and data-protection requirements. The curated content will be integrated into the Yazidi Community Archive, including structured inputs for the interactive map and multimedia timeline. Regular progress updates and final reporting will accompany the implementation.
The project is commissioned by Hawar.help, a human rights organisation.