Rekindling the Flame: Zoroastrianism in Iraqi Kurdistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-188
Author(s):  
Samme Dick

This article examines the emergence of Zoroastrianism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq since 2015 as a new religion inspired by Kurdish nationalism, feminism, ecologism and humanism. The author argues that the emergence of Zoroastrianism at this particular time is due to a combination of the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in 2014, legislative change and the importance some Kurdish nationalists historically attached to Zoroastrianism as the suggested original religion of the Kurds. The article outlines the historical context of Zoroastrianism in Kurdistan, and then explores the origins, beliefs and organisational structure of Kurdish Zoroastrianism. Also discussed are the legislative changes enabling the rise of the movement since 2015. This study draws on interviews with Kurdish Zoroastrian leaders as well as with representatives from the World Zoroastrian Organization, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIJi nû ve pêxistina agir: Baweriya Zerduştî li Kurdistana IraqêEv gotar, li ser peydabûna Zerduştiyê li Herêma Kurdistanê ya Iraqê hûr dibe, ku ji 2015an vir ve wek dînekî nû yê ji netewegeriya kurd, femînîzm, ekolojîzm û humanîzmê îlham wergirtî tê dîtin. Nivîskar îddia dike ku peydabûna Zerduştiyê ya bi taybetî wê demê ji ber hejmareke sedeman e: di 2014an de peydabûn û xurtbûna Dewleta Îslamî li Iraqê û Levantê, guherîna qanûnî û girîngiya nêrîna hin netewegerên kurd ku ji aliyê dîrokî Zerduştiyê wek dînê resen ê kurdan dibînin. Gotar, çarçoveya dîrokî ya Zerduştiyê li Kurdistanê bi kurtî rave dike û paşê li kok, bawerî û avahiya rêxistinî ya Zerduştiya kurdî dikole. Ji hêleke din, nîqaş dike ku guherînên hiqûqî ji 2015an vir ve rê li ber xurtbûna tevgerê vekiriye. Ev xebat xwe dispêre hevpeyvînên bi rêberên Zerduştiyên kurd re ligel hin şandeyên ji Rêxistina Zerduştiyan a Cîhanê, Wezareta Bexş û Karên Dînî ya Hikumeta Herêma Kurdistanê û Hevpeymaniya Kêmîneyên Iraqê.ABSTRACT IN SORANIGeşandinewey agireke: Zerdeştêtî le Kurdistanî ÊraqdaEm babete timaşay rewşî  wediyarkewtinî Zerdeştêtî dekat le Kurdistanî Êraqda, le sall 2010da wek ayînêkî nwê debînrêt ke le netewegerîy kurdî, fêmênîzm, jîngeparêzî û mirovparêzî îlham werdegirêt. Nûser bangeşey ewe dekat ke derkewtinî Zerdeştêtî lem kateda ke Dewlletî Îslamî Da'îş le Şam û Êraq le 2013 ser helldeda û be yasa rêgey pê dedirêt, şitêkî giringe  bo gerranewey kurd bo  ayînî neteweyî xoy wek ewey ke hendêk kurdî neteweperist  basî deken.  Babeteke rîşey mêjûyî Zerdeştêtî le Kurdistan nîşan dedat, herwaş rîşey  bawerr û binaẍey damezrawey Zerdeştêtî dedate ber roşnayî. Dîsan guftugoy gorranî yasa lew bareyewe bote hoyî derkewtinî em ayîne le 2015da. Em babete legell serok û bawerrdaranî Zerdeştîy le Kurdistan û damezrawey Zerdeştîyanî cîhanî û legell wezaretî karubarî ayînî le ḧukumetî herêmî Kurdistan û damezrawey kemînekanî Êraqda çawpêkewtinî encam dawe.ABSTRACT IN ZAZAKINewe ra geşkerdişê adirî: Kurdîstanê Îraqî de zerduştîyeNa meqale qayîtê zerduştîye kena ke sey bawerîya newîye serra 2015î ra nat Herêmê Kurdîstanî yê Îraqî de vejîyaye û hetê neteweperwerîya kurdan, femînîzm, dorûverperwerîye û merdimperwerîye ra îlham girewt. Nuştox musneno ke vejîyayîşê zerduştî yê ê demî çend sebeban ra qewimîya: hêzdarbîyayîşê DAÎŞ yê serra 2014î, vurîyayîşê qanûnî û tayê neteweperwerê kurdan ê ke tarîx de giranî daye zerduştîye ser ke aye sey dînê kurdan o eslî pêşnîyaz bikerê. Na meqale xulasaya kontekstê tarîxî yê zerduştîya Kurdîstanî dana û dima esl, bawerî û awanîya rêxistinan yê zerduştîya kurdan ser o cigêrayîş kena. Ser o kî vurîyayîşê qanûnî munaqeşe benê. Nê vurîyayîşî serra 2015î ra nat vejîyayîşê tevger kerd mumkîn. No cigêrayîş roportajanê bi serekanê kurdan ê zerduştîye û bi temsîlkaranê Rêxistina Zerduştîyan a Dinya, Wezaretê Ewqaf û Kar û Barê Dînî yê hukmatê Herêmê Kurdîstanî û Yewîya Eqalîyetanê Îraqî esas gêno

Author(s):  
Nazar Jamil Abdulazeez

Since the parliamentary elections in 31st April 2014, the political process in Iraq described as a fragile, ethnic tension have mounted and security situation declined tremendously with the rises of Islamic State in Sunni Arab populated areas. Since 10th June 2014, over a million internally displaced people approached Iraqi Kurdistan Region in a two-week time period. More than 300,000 monitories, including Yazidi Kurds and Christians, have fled to Duhok city. Additionally, over 40,000 civilians Yazidis trapped for a week in the mountain of Snjar, running from Islamic State (IS). This text works out measures for accommodating conflicts and claims of Iraqi sectarian groups. In order to explore and assess application of those means in conflict accommodation in Iraq, first, this text analyses the conflict through identifying actors, outlines the structure of the conflict and change in the dynamic of the conflict over the time. Second section of this text, illustrates the means for reconciliation of different identities in the world of politics based on the conflict analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 582-608
Author(s):  
Abdulkhalq Ibrahim Mustaffa ◽  
Radwan Ali Khidhir

This study aims to explain the role and impact of news websites in Iraqi Kurdistan region in raising public awareness regarding the dimensions of national security and providing them with important information. In this study the method of content analysis is used to analyzing the news content in (Xendan) website and (K24) website during their coverage of the war on Islamic state. The most important finding in this study are: news websites concerned with different dimensions of national security and the military dimension has received more attention than other dimension.


Author(s):  
Nazar Jamil Abdulazeez

Since the parliamentary elections in 31st April 2014, the political process in Iraq described as a fragile, ethnic tension have mounted and security situation declined tremendously with the rises of Islamic State in Sunni Arab populated areas. Since 10th June 2014, over a million internally displaced people approached Iraqi Kurdistan Region in a two-week time period. More than 300,000 monitories, including Yazidi Kurds and Christians, have fled to Duhok city. Additionally, over 40,000 civilians Yazidis trapped for a week in the mountain of Snjar, running from Islamic State (IS). This text works out measures for accommodating conflicts and claims of Iraqi sectarian groups. In order to explore and assess application of those means in conflict accommodation in Iraq, first, this text analyses the conflict through identifying actors, outlines the structure of the conflict and change in the dynamic of the conflict over the time. Second section of this text, illustrates the means for reconciliation of different identities in the world of politics based on the conflict analysis.


This book critically reflects on the failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. The book argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world. Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq War and denying their connection to contemporary events could mean that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.


Author(s):  
Emma Simone

Virginia Woolf and Being-in-the-world: A Heideggerian Study explores Woolf’s treatment of the relationship between self and world from a phenomenological-existential perspective. This study presents a timely and compelling interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s textual treatment of the relationship between self and world from the perspective of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Drawing on Woolf’s novels, essays, reviews, letters, diary entries, short stories, and memoirs, the book explores the political and the ontological, as the individual’s connection to the world comes to be defined by an involvement and engagement that is always already situated within a particular physical, societal, and historical context. Emma Simone argues that at the heart of what it means to be an individual making his or her way in the world, the perspectives of Woolf and Heidegger are founded upon certain shared concerns, including the sustained critique of Cartesian dualism, particularly the resultant binary oppositions of subject and object, and self and Other; the understanding that the individual is a temporal being; an emphasis upon intersubjective relations insofar as Being-in-the-world is defined by Being-with-Others; and a consistent emphasis upon average everydayness as both determinative and representative of the individual’s relationship to and with the world.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Assad N. Busool

Reform movements are important religious phenomena which haveoccurred throughout Islamic history. Medieval times saw theappearance of religious reformers, such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Taimiyah,Ibn Qayim al-Jawziyah and others; however, these reform activitiesdiffered significantly from the modern reform movement. The medievalreformers worked within Muslim society; it was not necessary to dealwith the external challenge presented by Europe as it was for themodern Muslim reformers after the world of Islam lost its independenceand fell under European rule. The powers of Europe believed that Islamwas the only force that impeded them in their quest for world dominanceand, relying on the strength of their physical presence in Muslimcountries, tried to convince the Muslim peoples tgat Islam was ahindrance to their progress and development.Another problem, no less serious than the first, faced by the modernMuslim reformers was the shocking ignorance of the Muslim peoples oftheir religion and their history. For more than four centuries,scholarship in all areas had been in an unabated state of decline. Thosereligious studies which were produced veered far from the spirit ofIslam, and they were so blurred and burdened with myths and legends,that they served only to confuse the masses.The ‘Ulama were worst of all: strictly rejecting change, they still hadthe mentality of their medieval forebearers against whom al-Ghazali,Ibn Taimiyah and others had fought. Hundreds of years behind thetimes, their central concern was tuqlid (the imitation of that which hadpreceeded them through the ages). For centuries, no one had dared toquestion this heritage or point out the religious innovations it impaired.In conjunction with their questioning of the tuqlid, the modernreformers strove to revive the concept of ijtihad (indmendentjudgement) in religious matters, an idea which had been disallowedsince the tenth century. The first to raiseanew the banner of $tihad inthe Arab Muslim world was Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani; after himSheikh Muhammad ‘Abduh in Egypt, and after him, his friend and ...


Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.


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