Iraq

'Singing Yazidi ancient music has saved me'

A choir of young Yazidi women who were victims of the IS vows to keep their music alive
When the Yazidi people of northern Iraq were attacked by the so-called Islamic state, the militants saw them as less than human. They murdered, raped and enslaved the people and tried to destroy the culture. The stories and the music of the Yazidis have however survived - and a new archive of recordings and writings is being deposited in Oxford university’s Bodleian Library, so it can never be destroyed. Its been put together by a charity AMAR international and has been brought over by a Yazidi girls’ choir. Lawrence Pollard caught up with one of the singers, a Yazidi academic, and the founder of AMAR, Baroness Emma Nicholson.

(Photo: The Yazidi girl choir practices their music. Credit: AMAR Foundation)

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Provides an overview of Iraq, including key events and facts about the home of some of the earliest civilisations

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