Iraq’s Yazidis Rediscover Lost History Through 1930s Photos Found in Museum Archive

Iraq’s Yazidis Rediscover Lost History Through 1930s Photos Found in Museum Archive
——————————
A collection of nearly 300 photographs of Iraq’s Yazidi community, taken by University of Pennsylvania archaeologists in the 1930s, has been rediscovered, helping to revive the cultural memory of this ancient religious minority devastated by the ISIS attacks.

Penn doctoral student Marc Marin Webb uncovered the images while researching museum archives. The photos document daily life, religious sites, and traditions in northern Iraq before IS militants destroyed much of the Yazidi heritage during their genocidal campaign.

Among the images are wedding photos from the early 1930s belonging to Ansam Basher’s grandparents, which deeply moved her as she had lost family albums and videos during the IS occupation of Mosul in 2014. The archive serves as a powerful act of resistance against cultural erasure.

The photos have been exhibited in Yazidi towns during New Year celebrations and shared digitally with the diaspora to reconnect the scattered community with their history. Researchers emphasize the importance of these images in showing the Yazidis as a vibrant people beyond the violence they endured.