On the sidelines of the activities of the Dialogue and Knowing the Other Camp, participants attended a musical session held by the ensemble of the Mirzo Institute of Music in Khansour.
Members of the Knights of Dialogue team were introduced to some of the most prominent traditional ezidi songs, which delighted the audience through the voices of the band members, accompanied by melodies played on traditional musical instruments.
It is worth noting that the Mirzo Institute of Music has been offering music courses for youth and children in Sinjar for six years. Music in Sinjar has become an outlet and an approach adopted by the city’s youth to cope with the psychological effects left by the terrorist attack on Sinjar during the ISIS invasion between 2014 and 2017, which resulted in the commission of some of the most heinous crimes of genocide. Through its activities, the institute also contributes to shaping artistic awareness among future generations by preserving and promoting Yazidi musical heritage, which represents a fundamental pillar of Yazidi culture.
Participants in the camp—organized by Masarat for Cultural and Media Development in cooperation with KAICIID and house of coexistence were briefed on the institute’s history, its significance, and its key activities.
It is also noted that the “Through Dialogue We Remain and Rise” camp was launched in Baghdad with the participation of youth from Sinjar, later joined by youth from Baghdad in its first phase. The camp then moved to Basra, where young men and women from Basra joined the team, which continued its journey to Dhi Qar and then to the Nineveh Plain, before entering the Old City of Mosul. The camp has now reached the city of Sinjar and its surrounding areas and will soon continue its tour to other Iraqi cities, as part of a program aimed at promoting dialogue as a mechanism for peacebuilding among followers of different religions and for rejecting hate speech.
