The Yazidi are a ethno-religious people distinctly different from the larger populated Kurdish ethno-linguistic people. They migrated primarily from northern Iraq due to facing persecution. As an ethno-religious people, they are adherents of a distinct ethnic religion.

If you are invited to a Yezidi home, bring a box of cookies, pastries or a box of chocolates. The most common greeting is the handshake coupled with eye contact and a smile. Good friends of the same sex may greet each other with a handshake and a kiss on each cheek, starting with the right. Expect to be introduced to each person individually at a small social function. At a large function, you may introduce yourself.

With the above in mind, hospitality is a tradition deeply ingrained in the culture. As a result, visitors are treated as kings and must always be fed and looked after.

For more information on the Yazidis people and diaspora Yazidi, see Yezidi International.

Their religion, Yazidism, is linked to ancient Mesopotamian religions and combines aspects of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

The Yazidis are monotheists, believing in God as creator of the world, which he has placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The Peacock Angel, as world-ruler, causes both good and bad to befall individuals, and this ambivalent character is reflected in myths of his own temporary fall from God's favour, before his remorseful tears extinguished the fires of his hellish prison and he was reconciled with God.

For more information on the Yazidis, see Yazidis.