News Center _Laments and sorrowful songs are an essential part of the cultural and religious heritage of Yazidi women. They have gained even greater depth and pain after the 2014 genocide. Becoming a means of expressing loss, displacement, and abduction.

The echoes of women’s voices still resonate in the anciednt lands of Mesopotamia, carrying the traces of thousands of years of suffering and resistance. The laments sung by Yazidi women, in particular, aren’t merely mourning rituals but powerful expressions of historical memory, rebellion and cultural resistance.

It is said that women were the first to weave the fabric of the Yazidi faith. While women’s voices are crucial in the oral transmission of faith, the connection established with nature, the sun, and life also finds its place in these narratives. However, the massacre and persecution witnessed by history have changed the form of this cultural transmission.

The Yazidi community, especially the people of Shingal and surrounding areas, have faced a long series of attacks and maccacres known as “Farman” (genicide). As the effects of these events accumulated throughout history, social laws and customs were entrenched that imposed severe restrictions on women in those areas. Women were pushed to the margins of cultural life and kept away from practicing the art of Dengbêj (Kurdish folk singing), limiting their presence to performing only laments as the only acceptable form of expression.

The song "Lavinç" is a clear example of this transformation. While men performed it as a Kurdish folk song, women were not allowed to sing it except in the form of a lament at specific times, often at sunset. Narratives indicate that women originally sang Lavinç as a folk song just like men, but the successive genocides and the pain and fear they left behind gradually drove women away from an important part of their cultural heritage.

Over time, women were left with only the voice of resistance, which they preserved in laments. These laments became the last vessel for the memory of pain and resilience, preserving what remained of their presence in the Yazidi cultural scene.

In the mountains of Shingal, women sing Lavinç as a lament at sunset after the deepest sorrows. When sung in the Kurdish folk style, it describes the harmony between mountains, plains, people, and nature. When sung as a lament, it expresses people's alienation from everything. In short, it is sung for the deepest sorrows.

In her laments, Mother Shimi embodies the depth of pain left by the seventy-four genocides that targeted Yazidis throughout history. Through her famous lament Lavinç, she seeks to convey the magnitude of the tragedy experienced by the people of Shingal following the ISIS attack in 2014. This lament, performed by Mother Shimi at sunset in the Shingal mountains, has become a living witness to those unhealed wounds.

The genocides and the suffering they left behind are central themes in Yazidi laments, carrying within them a historical and cultural narrative that immortalizes the collective memory of the Yazidi community. In this context, the documentary film "Evin di Rûyê Qirkirinê" (The Home in the Face of Genocide) by director Mahmoud Barazi highlights this oral heritage, presenting the Lavinç lament in the voice of Mother Shimi as a cry of protest against the genocide suffered by Yazidi women. Thus, the lament transforms from a mere vocal performance into a testimony of resistance, preserving memory and confronting oblivion.

Today, the wailing of Yazidi women is not limited to narrating past pains; they also play a crucial role in preserving cultural identity and transmitting it to future generations. These voices, echoing in the Shingal mountains, remain the common language of both grief and resistance.