[custom_adv] Yazidis on Wednesday crowned a new spiritual leader at Lalish, Iraq — their holiest site — nearly two months after the death of their top cleric. [custom_adv] A woman kisses the hand of the new ‘Baba Sheikh,’ or Yazidi spiritual leader, Ali Elias Haji Nasir, at his Lalish Temple inauguration near Duhok, Iraq, yesterday. [custom_adv] The Yazidi’s strict caste system stipulates that clerics can only hail from specific clans. Elias’ father was also a Baba Sheikh. [custom_adv] On Wednesday, hundreds of worshipers wearing medical masks gathered at the stone shrine of Lalish to pay their respects to the new leader. [custom_adv] Women wore brightly colored clothes ornately decorated with beads, their hair covered in veils. [custom_adv] One by one, the worshipers approached Baba Sheikh Ali, who was dressed in neatly pressed white, with an eggshell-colored wrap over his shoulders. [custom_adv] Earlier this week, the community’s secular chief, Prince Hazem Tahsin Bek, picked Elias over Ismail’s son. [custom_adv] Many Yazidi advocates have said that the prince did not properly consult the minority’s tribes and other notable figures to make his choice, and should have delayed Wednesday’s ceremony. [custom_adv] “I suspect new divisions within the community over this decision, which might eventually be rolled back,” said Talal Murad, who heads Ezidi24, a local organization covering Yazidi affairs.