France Press reverberated to Yezidis in Armenia
19:55, 21 June, 2013
YEREVAN, JUNE, 21, ARMENPRESS: France Press agency has reverberated to
Yazidis in Armenia and their problems.
`Armenpress’ reports that the agency has written:
`Their customs are strict and sometimes at odds with the values and
practices of the modern world, most notably the tradition of
marrying women while they are still in their early teens.
Some within the community, especially the young, are now wanting to
break out of the limits of tradition and forge normal lives and
careers.
The Yezidi are the biggest minority group in Armenia — a largely
mono-ethnic country where some 98 percent of the roughly 3.3
million population are ethnic Armenians and the country’s Christian
Apostolic Church dominates.
Fierce guardians of their traditions, the Yezidi do not allow
outsiders to convert to their faith and ban the eating of lettuce or
wearing of
anything blue.
Although they speak a form of Kurdish, Armenia’s Yezidi fiercely
reject being labelled Kurds and their religion which has seen them
regarded as “devil-worshippers” by Muslims — is thought by some to
have its origins in the Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia.
The Yezidis do not believe in heaven or hell, and do not regard Satan
as evil. In fact, they worship him in the guise of a peacock angel
whose name they are forbidden from saying out loud.
Found in Armenia’s western valleys close to Mount Ararat, as well as
in their spiritual home in nearby Iraq, along with Syria, Turkey and
Georgia, the strongly patriarchal Yezidi forbid girls from talking in
the presence of male elders or eating with male relatives.
Last year when Armenia moved to revise its law on marriage, raising
the minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls to 18,
representatives of the Yezidi community erupted in protest at what
they claimed was an assault on a cornerstone of their culture
“This is an ancient tradition,” said Aziz Tamoyan, the director of the
Yezidi Union in Armenia. “If a girl is not already married by the time
she is 18 then she is already considered a spinster.”
In the end, in the face of possible street protests, Armenia’s
parliament compromised and the minimum age that girls in the Yezidi
community could marry was set at 16.
But not everyone in the Yezidi community thought that an exception
should be made for them.
Many in the younger generations are increasingly turning their backs
on their ancestors’ way of life by refusing to have many children,
herd livestock or wear traditional clothing.
Although the number is still small — just around 100 — Yezidi
students are now studying at Armenian universities, said Khdr Hajoyan,
the
editor of a Yezidi newspaper named after their fabled homeland, Yezidkhana’.