For the first time on stage: the theater of Yezidis breaking stereotypes

There is a 60 thousand Yezidi community in Armenia, which is very traditional, preserves its customs and culture. And only recently did the Yezidis have their own theater. Moreover, not only men but also women took the stage, which not only surprised the members of the community, but also caused persecution. Journalist Gayane Mkrtchyan talks about the details of the theater in a publication of Jam.news.

The play “War and Life” tells the story in Yezidi about the participation of Yezidis in the Second Artsakh War, which took place in the fall of 2020. The initiative to establish a theater belongs to Greta Aleksanyan, an Armenian lawyer by profession.

“We had planned the opening of the theater with a Yezidi national work, but seeing the course of the war, the devotion and love of the Yezidis, their feelings equal to ours, we decided to dedicate the play to the memory of the heroes killed in the Artsakh war,” says Greta Aleksanyan.

She is also the author of the script of the play and says that during the war she visited the families of both Yezidis and Armenians who had victims and saw their feelings. 150 Yezidis from the Yezidi community took part in the Second Artsakh War, 15 of whom were killed.

Greta Aleksanyan lives in Armavir region whit a large number of Yezidi families. She says that as a result of close contact with them, in February 2020, she founded the “Next to the Yezidis” educational and cultural initiative. It later became the basis for the opening of the theater․

The first Yezidi theater in Armenia is named after Arsen Poladov, a Yezidi master of pantomime, the founder of the Yerevan Pantomime Theater.

Anahit Sharo from the Yezidi village of Ferik, Armavir region, is one of the unique Yezidi women who agreed to play in the spectacle. She says she has dreamed for forty years that one day the Yezidis will have a theater. She regrets that Yezidi women lack education and knowledge, and now they must also try to overcome these problems through culture․

One of the actors of the theater, Amar Mamoyan, thinks that the theater will break the strict attitude in the community and will open the way to the stage for women․”This is a whole culture, I am sure the theater will change the attitude of men towards this issue.”

Full text in Armenian