In December 2023, Ezidi Times published an article addressing a clear case of cultural appropriation involving a widely circulated music video. At the time, the issue received limited attention. Today, that same video has surpassed 2.5 million views.
What is truly unfortunate is not the number itself but the silence surrounding what those views represent.
The music video visually appropriates Ezidi religious and cultural elements, including traditional Ezidi clothing and sacred symbols, while portraying a woman wielding weapons. To many viewers, this may appear as artistic expression. To Ezidis, it is something far more serious.
It is cultural and identity theft happening in real time.
Beyond the theft and dishonouring of Sharfadin values and Ezidi culture, this portrayal also attempts to place Ezidis under an artificially constructed umbrella identity by presenting them as one of many groups that are portrayed as “Kurdish.” By using Ezidi religious clothing and symbols within a narrative that promotes war, the video blurs and erases the clear cultural, religious, and historical boundaries that define Ezidis as a distinct people. This is not representation — it is assimilation through misrepresentation, where visibility is used to redefine identity without consent.
Ezidi traditional clothing is not a costume. It is inseparable from Sharfadin, the Ezidi religion, whose core principles explicitly reject war, violence, and aggression. Depicting an Ezidi woman holding weapons directly contradicts Ezidi belief, history, and values. Such imagery does not exist within Ezidi culture because it fundamentally violates it. This is how cultural appropriation operates at its most damaging level: by stripping symbols of their meaning, placing them in hostile narratives, and presenting the result as harmless creativity.
Equally concerning is that Ezidi voices attempting to challenge this portrayal have been removed from comment sections and platforms. When those affected are silenced while the content continues to spread, the imbalance becomes structural. We’ll let readers draw their own conclusions.
