Khatuna Fekhra, also written Xatûna Fexra, is a revered female figure in Yazidi tradition. Accounts of childbirth, fasting, sacred lineages and her Lalish sanctuary show her importance through particular voices and practices.
A name in a sacred lineage
Kreyenbroek and Omarkhali identify Xatûna Ferxa or Fexra with a sheikhly lineage and a Lalish sanctuary, connecting her name with Fexredîn. [1] Religious identification does not establish independently documented dates, childhood or political offices.
A midwife’s testimony recorded by Drower
In Peacock Angel, published in 1941, E. S. Drower records the midwife Hajjia invoking Khatun Fakhra’s help during difficult labour. Hajjia and Jiddan described her as a special patroness of childbirth. They also described thanksgiving after delivery: bread distributed to poor people, with meat added by families who could afford it. [2] The passage preserves named speakers, an invocation and an act of gratitude. It is an account of religious practice recorded at a particular time, rather than an instruction for maternity care.
Fasting within a family’s devotional calendar
Eszter Spät’s 2016 study draws on fieldwork in the Kurdistan Region in April 2015 and earlier visits. In one family she knew, a woman fasted for Xatûna Fexra, associated with pregnancy and childbirth, in addition to observances shared with her husband. Spät places individual one-day fasts before the three-day fast for Êzîd. [3] This example gives devotion a household setting. It should not become a claim that all Yazidi women follow one identical date or set of observances.
A sanctuary within Lalish’s sacred landscape
Ghiath Rammo’s 2023 thesis describes the mezar dedicated to Xatûna Fexra at Lalish. Its photograph and caption identify the shrine’s caretaker at an entrance bearing her name; the text describes visits for blessings, prayers and small offerings. [4] Spät discusses Lalish as a valley containing many shrines and sacred places. [3] The accompanying panorama shows that larger setting. The main conical spires in a general view should not automatically be labelled as her particular sanctuary.
Why genealogies need attribution
Drower’s informants call Khatun Fakhra the mother of holy sheikhs, including Fakhruddin; Kreyenbroek and Omarkhali describe Fexredîn’s daughter. [2][1] The latter also reject reducing her to a secondary duplicate of Pîra Fat. [1] These accounts should remain attributed rather than merged into one genealogy.
Women, ritual and the limits of historical claims
Invocation, thanksgiving and fasting document women’s participation in religious life. [2][3] They do not automatically define every woman’s social position. Kreyenbroek and Omarkhali emphasise variety and dynamism in oral tradition. [1] This permits religious meaning without an invented, uniform biography.
Sources and further reading
- Philip Kreyenbroek and Khanna Omarkhali, Yezidi Spirits? On the question of Yezidi beliefs: A review article, Kurdish Studies 4/2, 2016, pp.197–207, especially 198 and 204–205.
- E. S. Drower, Peacock Angel, John Murray, London, 1941, pp.31–32: Hajjia and Jiddan on childbirth devotion and thanksgiving.
- Eszter Spät, Hola hola Tawûsî Melek, hola hola şehidêt Şingalê: Persecution and the development of Yezidi ritual life, Kurdish Studies 4/2, 2016, pp.155–175, especially 157–158 and note 6.
- Ghiath Rammo, Culti e Tradizioni dello Yezidismo. Spazio sacro e identità religiosa, Sapienza University of Rome doctoral thesis, 2023, p.75 and figure 25; relevant passage and caption.