Iraqi Yazidis celebrate religions new year

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(19 Apr 2017) Thousands of Yazidis celebrated their religious new year at the ancient Yazidi temple at Lalesh in northern Iraq on Tuesday evening. • New year is on Wednesday but celebrations are held on the eve. • Lalesh is the holiest Yazidi shrine in Iraq and in the world. • Yazidis are a few hundred thousand strong, mostly Kurdish-speaking religious minority in Iraq who pray to a god called Melek Taus or the Peacock Angel. • They have suffered terribly in the recent conflict, with thousands of them murdered by the Islamic State (IS) group who branded them devil-worshippers. • At least 3,000 Yazidi women and girls are still thought to be in IS captivity, many held as sex slaves. • In the past year most of their areas have been retaken by Kurdish security forces but a lack of reconstruction and a general sense of insecurity prevailing in northern Iraq have kept most of them from returning home. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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