Murad Ismael, a prominent Ezidi activist and co-founder of the Sinjar Academy, is facing an arrest warrant issued by a court in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. The warrant follows his outspoken criticism of Iraq’s Minister of Migration, Evan Faeq Jabro, and the Ministry’s handling of the ongoing crisis faced by Ezidi internally displaced persons (IDPs).
In a landmark step toward long-overdue justice, over 15,000 Ezidis living in 11 settlements near Sinjar (Shingal) in Nineveh Province have begun receiving official title deeds to their homes. This unprecedented recognition follows decades of systematic denial and displacement stemming from the Ba’ath regime’s Arabization campaign in 1975.
The Yezidis are an ethno-religious minority with the majority speaking Kurmanji, one of the main Kurdish dialects, according to researchers. Geographically, they are classified as a dispersed minority in demographic centres where population density is homogenous and concentrated. They are mainly located in contested areas across several residential clusters, notably in the Sinjar region (locally known as Shingal) and the Nineveh Plain, which falls administratively under the central government. This region includes the Shekhan district, along with numerous Yezidi villages and towns in the Tel Keppe district, as well as the cities of Ba’shiqa and Bahzani in Nineveh province. There are also smaller population clusters in the southern and western parts of Duhok province, which have been part of the Kurdistan region since 1991, including towns and cities such as Sharya, Khanke, Ba’adre, and Derabun.