Top Kurdistan officials honor Kakai religious observance

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Top Kurdistan Region officials on Monday congratulated the Kakais in the Kurdistan Region and around the world on their “Qultas” religious observance, during which the faithful spend three days fasting.

“With the advent of the Eid (Qultas), I extend my warmest congratulations and blessings to all the Kakais sisters and brothers and all Yarsans in Kurdistan and the world," said Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in a statement.

“I ask the Almighty to accept your fasting and worship, and that you spend the days of Eid in a safe, reassuring atmosphere full of delights.”

The Kurdish leader and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), President Masoud Barzani, in his congratulatory message, expressed his hope that the Kakai holiday period is "a source of blessings" and that Kurdistan's culture of coexistence continues.

The Kakais, followers of a syncretic religion that contains elements of Zoroastrianism and Shia Islam, are ethnically Kurdish and reside in the provinces of Diyala and Kirkuk, and the Nineveh Plains. An estimated 100,000 live in Iraq, according to data from Minority Rights.

Having suffered religious persecution from multiple directions, both historically and in recent decades, members of the community have often sought to avoid attention by keeping their practices relatively secret in an attempt to avoid bringing attention to themselves.

They are among the many minorities in Iraq that have been systematically targeted by ISIS but without garnering the same level of news coverage and general awareness as with other more well-known groups. A significant number of Kakai families evacuated their villages in Kirkuk’s Daquq district following the militant group’s rise to prominence in 2014.