Kurdish Yazidi Scholar Xanna Omerxalî to Receive Prestigious Jamal Nebez Award

By The Botan Times English Section
March 23, 2025

BERLIN — The Berlin-based Jamal Nebez Foundation has announced Kurdish Yazidi writer Xanna Omerxalî as the recipient of its biennial award, with the ceremony scheduled to take place in the coming months.

The selection committee cited Omerxalî’s extensive research on Yazidi religious traditions, practices, and sacred texts as the basis for their decision. Omerxalî, who hails from Yerevan, Armenia, comes from a family of Yazidi religious leaders.

“We are thrilled to honor someone of such scholarly caliber with this award,” said Fexriya Adsay, the award committee coordinator, in a statement to Rudaw media network. “Through these awards, we aim both to recognize Kurdish luminaries and to further the legacy of Jamal Nabaz, a pioneering theorist of contemporary Kurdish nationalism.”

The award, presented every two years, previously honored Zara Mohammadi, a Kurdish language teacher from Eastern Kurdistan (Iranian Kurdistan).

About Xanna Omerxalî

Born in Armenia in 1981, Xanna Omerxalî Usoyan is a Kurdish Yazidi researcher from the Omerxalî priestly lineage. She completed her undergraduate studies in Iranian and Kurdish linguistics at Saint Petersburg University in 2002, followed by a master’s degree in 2004. In 2006, she earned her doctorate with a dissertation focusing on the Yazidi religion.

Omerxalî has contributed significantly to Yazidi studies, participating in numerous academic conferences and teaching courses on the Kurdish language and the specialized language of Yazidi sacred texts.

Her published works include “Yezidism: Society, Symbol, Ritual” (2007), “Kurdish Reader: Modern Literature and Oral Texts in Kurmanji” (2011), “Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream” (2014), and “The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written” (2017).

She has also authored approximately 20 scholarly articles on Yazidi religious beliefs in Russian, English, and Kurdish languages.

Sources: Rudaw, Wikipedia

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