Articles

It's a Shame to Stay with Iraq: Yezidi Official

Leyla H. Sherwani / 11 сентября 2017 года

The officials and personalities of the ethno-religious Yezidi community in Iraq state the Yezidi people yearn for a life with no more catastrophes and have pinned their entire hope on the independence referendum of the Kurdistan Region.

Exploring Kurdish Origins

Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady / 6 сентября 2017 года

The question of Kurdish origins, i.e., who the Kurds are and where they come from, has for too long remained an enigma.

What will a Future Kurdish State Do with its Own Minorities?

Crispin Smith / 5 сентября 2017 года

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (K.R.I.) is expected to hold a referendum on independence from Iraq on September 25. While the disputes between Kurds and Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Arab populations will be a key factor in any independence process, the realities of building a Kurdish state in northern Iraq will be made more complex by the enormous ethnic and religious diversity in the region.

Have Kurds lost their connection with nature?

Hannah Lynch / 30 августа 2017 года

During his many years in exile Nabil Musa’s dreams often took him back to one river in Kurdistan where he had spent his youth. The memory of swimming and fishing, evenings spent catching fireflies, flocks of migrating birds that were so large they turned the sky dark sustained him in the United Kingdom.

Life After ISIS Slavery for Yazidi Women and Children

Cathy Otten / 30 августа 2017 года

This summer, Iraqi forces finally drove isis out of Mosul and most of northern Iraq. But for the Yazidis, a long persecuted religious and ethnic minority who practice a faith with pre-Zoroastrian roots and Islamic and Christian influences, stability is still a distant prospect. isis militants consider the Yazidis infidels and have subjected them to systematic killings, rape, and pillage. In the summer of 2014, isis killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of Yazidis; more than fifty thousand survivors fled to Sinjar Mountain, in the baking August heat. Three thousand Yazidis remain in isis captivity, but as isis has lost territory, international interest in them has faded.

Expats shouldn’t miss Kurdistan’s other bazaars

James Anderson / 24 августа 2017 года

One of the most fascinating bazaars to get lost at in Erbil is not in the Citadel, but rather a more local and less known one. Its name derives from the Kurdish word for “used” and its walkways and narrows corridors reveal shop after shop selling everything from jewelry and gold, rugs and antiques, to used clothes and make-up.