Khanna Omarkhali, also known as Khanna Usoyan (Kurdish: Xana Omerxalî; Russian: Ханна Рзаевна Омархали, also Ханна Рзаевна Усоян; born 15 March 1981, Armenian SSR), is a Kurdish[1][2] religion researcher.
[3] She studied Iranian philology at the Saint Petersburg State University, from where she obtained a Ph.D. in 2006, as well as a BSc in 2002 and a MSc in 2004.
[4] In 2005, she joined the University of Göttingen as an Academic Assistant in the DFG project “Cultural memory of the Yezidi community in Germany with regard to religious questions", from 2007 to 2010 she was a bursar of the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 896/2 “Götterbilder - Gottesbilder - Weltbilder”, with the project “Yezidi Religious Texts: Their Theological Implications with some References to the Ahl-e Haqq Religious Tradition”.
[7] Khanna's main research covers religious minorities in Kurdistan, religion, orality and scripturalization in the Middle East, Yezidism (history, rituals, modern transformations), theological implications of the textual tradition of Yezidis, religious and spiritual authorities in transition, qualitative research in Religious studies and Kurdish dialectology, literature and culture.
[4] Khanna Omarkhali belongs to the Yezidi priestly caste of Pîrs and both her grandfathers are well-known "ulmdars" (i.e. experts in religious knowledge).