Missing a lot of this world : formal education and political competition in Iraq through a Yezidi lens

Abstract

This thesis examines Yezidi perceptions of access to formal education for Yezidi children and youth from the Sinjar region of Iraq, a primary homeland of the Yezidi people and an officially disputed territory between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government of Iraq in Baghdad, between the periods of 2003–2014 and 2014 onwards. These two time frames are selected and differentiated to reflect two major events in the recent history of Sinjar – the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and subsequent de facto control of Sinjar by the KRG, and the seizing of the area by the Islamic State (IS) group and subsequent displacement of the majority of the Yezidi community in 2014. This thesis also seeks to understand prominent Yezidi discourses around this issue and the implications for Yezidi children and youth from Sinjar, and for the Yezidi community as a whole.

This research is conducted according to a qualitative approach. The data set was obtained on the ground in Iraq through the use of in-depth semi-structured and narrative interviews conducted according to the Responsive Interview Model between August and December 2016. Thematic analysis was then applied to the research data. The theoretical framework of the thesis broadly follows the typologies of sovereignty, identity, and education, with more defined theoretical concepts applied which fall under one or two of these typologies. Supporting information is found in documentation released by United Nations agencies, reports from think tanks and NGOs, and published media pieces. A strong effort is made throughout to preserve the voices of the research participants, the majority of whom are themselves displaced Yezidis from Sinjar.

This work aims to illuminate a pressing but underexamined problematique that affects the lives of vulnerable people and has significant implications for the future of the nation of Iraq. Particular attention is paid to political competition between competing bodies of authority in Iraq, especially between the KRG and the federal Iraqi government. The thread of trauma as a result of the attempted genocide of the Yezidi people by IS from 2014 is observable throughout the work, as it would be through any research on this minority that either focuses on this time period or involves research participants from the community.