Kurdish MP Vian Dakhil Slams Iraqi Parliament for Ignoring Yazidis: “Our Case Means Nothing to Them”
“President Masoud Barzani insisted that the Yazidi name must be explicitly included. He said: ‘I will not accept a constitution without the Yazidis mentioned,’” she recalled.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Vian Dakhil, a prominent Iraqi MP and spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the Iraqi Parliament, issued a scathing critique of Iraq’s treatment of the Yazidi community during the First International Scientific Conference on Yezidi Identity and Heritage 2025 (Religion, Culture, History, Geography), held Tuesday in Duhok.
“In the Iraqi Parliament, Yazidis are not given any attention—our issue is considered unimportant,” Dakhil said. Recalling a moment before the 2014 ISIS genocide when she identified herself as Yazidi in Parliament, Dakhil noted, “Many MPs were confused and asked, ‘What is a Yazidi?’ They had never even heard of us.”
She emphasized that while the 2014 genocide forced Yazidis into global awareness, Iraq’s authorities have done little to ensure justice or restoration. “It doesn’t matter whether you know who the Yazidis are. What matters is what rights you, as a government, as a state, have granted them,” she stated.
Barzani’s Legacy of Inclusion
Dakhil praised President Masoud Barzani’s early and instrumental role in embedding Yazidi identity within Iraq’s permanent constitution in 2005. “President Masoud Barzani insisted that the Yazidi name must be explicitly included. He said: ‘I will not accept a constitution without the Yazidis mentioned,’” she recalled, emphasizing how foundational that recognition remains for Iraq’s Yazidis.
Years of Neglect
Highlighting years of failed promises and neglect, Dakhil said successive Iraqi governments have done little to address Yazidi grievances, especially after the genocide by ISIS, which displaced over 400,000 Yazidis from Sinjar. “We have posed our questions to Baghdad countless times, and each time we receive no real answers,” she lamented. “It has been 11 years since the genocide, and still, tens of thousands of Yazidis are living in camps under harsh summer and winter conditions.”
Call for Implementation of Sinjar Agreement
Dakhil reiterated calls for full implementation of the 2020 Sinjar Agreement between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government. “The agreement is signed. All that remains is to carry it out—rebuild homes, ensure security, and return the displaced to their towns,” she urged. “But Baghdad continues to sideline our case, treating Yazidi suffering as peripheral.”
The Yazidis, an ethnoreligious minority native to Iraq’s Sinjar region, suffered one of the most brutal genocides of the 21st century when ISIS militants attacked their homeland in August 2014. Thousands were killed, women were enslaved, and more than 400,000 Yazidis were displaced. Despite global recognition of the genocide and international support, resettlement, justice, and restoration efforts remain stalled due to political and security complications—especially disputes over control in Sinjar between Baghdad, Erbil, and various militias, including the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization by EU, U.S. and Türkiye.
Vian Dakhil, known for her emotional 2014 speech in the Iraqi Parliament that brought global attention to the Yazidi crisis, has continued to advocate relentlessly for the rights of her people.
