Probably none of us have heard about these people. I know I had never heard of the Yazidis before until they were being set upon.
Who are Iraq's Kakai?
HALABJA, Iraq — The Kakais are one of the religious minorities scattered throughout northern Iraq in the provinces of Sulaimaniyah and Halabja, in the Ninevah Plains of Ninevah province and in villages to the southeast of Kirkuk. Historians and researchers disagree on their classification, as mystery and secrecy shroud this sect. Kakais have kept their beliefs hidden, and this secrecy has prevented them from forming their own independent political parties and gaining representation in the parliaments of the central Iraqi government and Kurdistan Region.
Summary⎙ Print In an interview with Al-Monitor, Ako Shawais, the first political representative of Iraq’s Kakai minority, discusses why this sect is so secretive and its careful struggle for political and religious rights.
Author Saad SalloumPosted February 10, 2016
TranslatorPascale el-Khoury
Kakais ethnically associate themselves with Kurds, but a group of them proclaims that the Kakais are a distinct community and demands political representation. The population has won a quota-mandated seat in the Halabja provincial council, occupied today by Ako Shawais.
Shawais is a supervisor working at the Education Directorate in the province of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan and a human rights activist advocating the cause of the Kakais. He was chosen to be the Kakai representative in Halabja, the first such position in contemporaryIraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) history.
Read more:
Who are Iraq's Kakai? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
Who are Iraq's Kakai?
HALABJA, Iraq — The Kakais are one of the religious minorities scattered throughout northern Iraq in the provinces of Sulaimaniyah and Halabja, in the Ninevah Plains of Ninevah province and in villages to the southeast of Kirkuk. Historians and researchers disagree on their classification, as mystery and secrecy shroud this sect. Kakais have kept their beliefs hidden, and this secrecy has prevented them from forming their own independent political parties and gaining representation in the parliaments of the central Iraqi government and Kurdistan Region.
Summary⎙ Print In an interview with Al-Monitor, Ako Shawais, the first political representative of Iraq’s Kakai minority, discusses why this sect is so secretive and its careful struggle for political and religious rights.
Author Saad SalloumPosted February 10, 2016
TranslatorPascale el-Khoury
Kakais ethnically associate themselves with Kurds, but a group of them proclaims that the Kakais are a distinct community and demands political representation. The population has won a quota-mandated seat in the Halabja provincial council, occupied today by Ako Shawais.
Shawais is a supervisor working at the Education Directorate in the province of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan and a human rights activist advocating the cause of the Kakais. He was chosen to be the Kakai representative in Halabja, the first such position in contemporaryIraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) history.
Read more:
Who are Iraq's Kakai? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
