A recent Deutschlandfunk programme gave young Ezidis space to explain one of the most misunderstood aspects of Ezidi identity: the hereditary groups of Şêx, Pîr and Mirîd. Their explanations point to an important distinction often lost in outside descriptions. These groups are not a hierarchy of human worth. They are inherited religious relationships with different duties, responsibilities and marriage rules within Sharfadin.

On 9 September 2026, the German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk devoted a segment of its religious affairs programme Tag für Tag to the hereditary groups within Ezidi society and the rules governing marriage. The programme, titled “Erbgruppen: Warum es so strenge Vorschriften gibt, wen Jesiden heiraten dürfen”, examined why Ezidis are born into the groups Şêx, Pîr and Mirîd and why traditional marriage rules operate within this structure.

The episode featured several Ezidi voices. Nachla K., a 22-year-old law student who came to Germany from Iraq in 2015, spoke about the misconceptions Ezidis regularly encounter and about her own understanding of marriage within the faith. Wael, a 25-year-old Ezidi from Syria, explained the responsibilities associated with being born into a Şêx family and rejected the idea that this makes him superior to a Mirîd or Pîr. Ezidi author Şawke D. described the inherited structure as a mechanism that has helped maintain cohesion among Ezidis through centuries of persecution.

Together, their comments addressed an issue that has long been misunderstood in descriptions of Ezidis: the frequent use of the expression “caste system.” The word may be convenient for outsiders. But without explanation, it can produce an entirely false picture.

Şêx, Pîr and Mirîd are not ranks of human value

Ezidis are traditionally born into one of three principal hereditary groups: Şêx, Pîr or Mirîd. Membership is inherited and cannot simply be chosen or changed later in life. Religious obligations and relationships are connected to these groups, and marriage is likewise governed by inherited religious rules.

This much is well established in academic literature on Ezidi religious organisation. Researchers have described the three groups as hereditary and endogamous and have documented the important relationships between Şêxs, Pîrs and Mirîds in religious life.

Where misunderstanding begins is when the English or German word “caste” is assumed to mean that Ezidis are divided into higher and lower categories of people. They are not. A Mirîd is not a lesser Ezidi than a Şêx. A Şêx is not more valuable than a Pîr. A Pîr does not possess greater human dignity than a Mirîd. They have different inherited duties.

Wael explained that being born into a Şêx family, he said, does not mean that he is “better,” “special” or more powerful than other Ezidis. Rather than imagining the structure as a pyramid, with one group standing above another, he suggested imagining it as a circle. The structure of Sharfadin is based on relationships between groups, not separation between supposedly superior and inferior human beings.

Şêxs and Pîrs traditionally carry particular spiritual and ceremonial responsibilities. Mirîds constitute the largest hereditary group and participate fully in the religious life of Ezidis. Importantly, even members of Şêx and Pîr families themselves exist within networks of religious relationships and obligations; they are not simply an elite standing above everyone else.

Research into Ezidi religious organisation likewise shows that hereditary status does not amount to a secular ranking of social worth. One recent academic study notes that the hereditary structure carries considerable religious significance but does not itself confer secular power. This is why comparing the Ezidi structure directly with caste hierarchies historically associated with South Asia can be deeply misleading. The use of the same English word does not make the underlying religious and social systems equivalent. In Sharfadin, difference of responsibility does not mean inequality of people.

Religious duties create interdependence

One of the most important aspects of the system is precisely the opposite of segregation: the groups are religiously connected to one another. The relationship between Şêx, Pîr and Mirîd is part of a wider network of spiritual obligations. Traditional Ezidi religious life includes relationships with a Şêx and Pîr as well as other spiritual bonds, including the institution of the Brother or Sister of the Hereafter (Ezdiki: Xush u Bre Axrate).

The programme described how an Ezidi may choose a Brother or Sister of the Hereafter from another hereditary group—a spiritual relationship intended to last throughout life. Such institutions make little sense if the three groups are understood simply as social classes designed to keep people apart. They instead reveal a structure built around reciprocal relationships. The groups need one another.

The religious duties traditionally associated with Şêxs and Pîrs exist in relation to other Ezidis. Mirîds, in turn, have inherited religious relationships with Şêxs and Pîrs. The system therefore establishes responsibilities across family lines and hereditary groups. This is one reason the pyramid illustration sometimes used to explain Ezidi society is so inadequate. A pyramid visually tells the reader that somebody is at the bottom and somebody else is at the top.

That is already an interpretation that is wrong and an incorrect understanding of Sharfadin.

Why marriage follows hereditary boundaries

Marriage is where outsiders often encounter the structure most directly. Sharfadin traditionally requires endogamy. Ezidis marry Ezidis, and marriage must also respect the inherited religious divisions governing Şêx, Pîr and Mirîd families.

Nachla K. explained that she had never considered marrying a non-Ezidi. For her, marrying within the faith is connected to preserving the religion and ensuring its continuation, particularly after the enormous losses the Ezidi people have suffered through persecution and genocide. Her husband, whom she met while studying law, is also a Mirîd. Asked what would have happened if he had belonged to an incompatible hereditary group, she explained that she would have excluded a romantic relationship from the beginning.

From outside Sharfadin, that rule can appear difficult to understand. But it cannot be understood properly if it is separated from Ezidi concepts of religion, descent and spiritual kinship. Ezidi identity is inherited. Sharfadin does not traditionally operate as a missionary religion seeking converts, and conversion into the religion is not accepted. Academic descriptions likewise recognise hereditary membership and endogamy as central features of traditional Ezidi religious organisation.

The marriage rules between hereditary groups therefore do not exist because one group is considered too good to marry another. That interpretation gets the principle almost exactly backwards. The boundaries exist despite the equality of the groups. They concern religious lineage, inherited spiritual relationships and the preservation of the structure itself. In traditional understandings, some of these relationships are treated as forms of spiritual kinship, which helps explain why marriage across particular hereditary boundaries is prohibited. Academic research has also documented this religious understanding of the prohibition.

Whether individual Ezidis find every aspect of these rules easy in modern life is another question. Diaspora, individual choice and changing social circumstances naturally create discussions, including among younger Ezidis.

Centuries of persecution also shape how Ezidis understand preservation

Şawke D. placed the hereditary structure within another important context: survival. He described it as a protective mechanism that helped hold Ezidi society together through repeated persecution. According to his explanation, the system of religious obligations and prohibitions helped ensure that Ezidis remained connected to one another and that each person carried responsibilities towards others.

The historical development of the hereditary groups is complex, and scholars continue to examine how different elements of the present structure developed over time. It would therefore be too simplistic to reduce the entire religious order to a single historical event or purpose. Nevertheless, the connection between religious continuity and collective survival is impossible to ignore.

Sharfadin was transmitted for generations largely through religious practice, oral sacred knowledge, family relationships and inherited responsibilities. In such a religious tradition, continuity depends not only on believing certain theological propositions but also on maintaining the relationships through which religious knowledge and practice are transmitted. This makes the hereditary structure far more than a system determining whom someone may marry. It is part of the architecture through which Sharfadin has survived.

The problem with interpreting Ezidis through somebody else’s categories

Ezidis are frequently described through concepts developed outside Ezidi society. Sometimes those concepts are useful. Sometimes they distort what they are supposed to explain. “Caste” is one example.

If the term is used merely to indicate hereditary groups with marriage restrictions, a reader may understand its technical purpose. But if it causes the reader to imagine a rigid ladder of superior and inferior human beings, it has stopped explaining Ezidi society and started misrepresenting it. The better starting point is the one offered by the Ezidis interviewed in the programme themselves. Different groups. Different inherited duties. Religious boundaries. Mutual obligations. Equal Ezidis.

This does not mean that traditions cannot be discussed, studied or questioned. Nor does it mean every Ezidi will explain every religious practice in precisely the same way. Sharfadin, like every ancient religious tradition, contains history, interpretation and internal discussion.

But those discussions should begin with an accurate understanding of what the institution actually is.

An Ezidi born as a Mirîd does not stand beneath an Ezidi born as a Şêx. A Şêx does not become a more valuable Ezidi by inheriting religious duties. A Pîr is not a member of an intermediate social class whose human worth lies somewhere between the other two. They are parts of the same religious structure.

For generations, those relationships have connected Ezidis to one another, transmitted religious responsibilities and helped maintain Sharfadin despite repeated attempts to destroy the Ezidi people.

Deutschlandfunk’s programme is therefore valuable not because it resolves every question about the hereditary groups, but because it gives Ezidis themselves space to correct one of the most persistent misconceptions. The structure is better understood as responsibility, relationship and continuity.