Gerard Russell

Gerard Russell worked in Iraq in 2005-6 and returned there last month. Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, about Middle Eastern religions, will be published in November.

Peacock Worship: The Yazidis

Gerard Russell, 11 September 2014

At the village​ of Khanqe, in Iraqi Kurdistan, tens of thousands of Yazidi refugees were living in rows of UN-issued tents. They had been driven out of their homes in Sinjar, sixty miles to the south-west, by an Isis attack on 3 August. It’s not the first time the Yazidis have been persecuted; it’s surprising that the sect has managed to survive at all. In the 12th century...

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