Humans of East - Humans of Kurdistan

“I was in sixth grade when I first started doing sports professionally, and I have been doing it for six years now. The best things in life to me is when my family are safe and healthy, and I can see a smile on my mother's face. I want to participate in the 2020 Olympics, on an international platform and become the pride of Kurdistan. I have been away from sports for a year now due to injury, and except for Mariwan's physical center, no other institution has protected me. I hope I can get well soon and get a sponsor because doing sports in this city is really difficult. I am one of the few people in the city that lifts people's hopes, it's a shame that I can't do sports, I really want to get back to it soon”. ...

Jan 04 2021

January 4, 2020

“My father had a big shop in Mahabad's Bazar, he was sewing blankets, and I really liked the colors and shapes on the blanket. Those shapes and designs all have names, but I didn't know that as a kid. My older brother and I used to go to my father's shop, and my brother really liked doing sports, so he used to go to training. One day we woke up and found out that my father has had a stroke, and can no longer work. We went to the shop for ten days so it wouldn't close down, and because my brother was always working out, he used to say that he can't be at the shop and it was too much work for him. So, I took over regardless of how young I was. My father passed away after 10 years, so it was just me and the shop. I still have my shop, by I can't work as I used to because of my age, so often times when someone wants something done I just send them to people that I have taught and have a shop now”. ...

Jan 02 2021

January 2, 2021

“After serving in the army, I knew that I was a grown up and know more about life now, so I got married. I think after getting married I became more aware, and now I can say that I'm fully aware of my surroundings. Marriage does limit things in your life, but it's very important for the future and the way you think. I chose my wife, we were in a relationship for two years before I tell my family about her. I was young back then, and we didn't have no mobile phones or anything of that sort to communicate with others, I couldn't show her affection. It was very difficult, but it was different from now. Day and night, we were outside writing letter and crying for our lovers, hoping that they pick up the letter we planted somewhere on the street. I am now more conservative than I used to be. There has been a lot of things that I had wished to happen and never happened, or even when they had happened they weren't the way I had imagined them”. ...

Dec 31 2020

December 31, 2020

“Girls in earlier days were innocent, they never put makeup on, and all they did was putting on this hat and this type of clothing. Life was difficult back then, we weren't as brave as they are now that they fight to be equal with men. We used to even act shy around our husbands, as well as any other men that lived with us in the house. I always wear this hat, whether it's cold or warm, night or day. I even wear it while sleeping, I tightly put my headscarf on. I wear ever since I was a kid, it has been about 70 or 80 years. I am used to it now. This type of hat was common in this area, but not many people who still wear this in our village, just some older people in my village and some in Mahabad and Bokan. I can't buy gold, so I just wear this blue necklace so people don't jinx me. I put basil and herbs that have aroma on my necklace so I smell good, so people don't say she is an old lady that doesn't smell good”. ...

Dec 29 2020

December 29, 2020

“While I was in my mother's womb and my entire family was gathering in my grandfather's garden during the summer, due to his love for our village's snowy mountains, my uncle named me Kwestan (Kwestan translates to snowy mountains). However, after a while when Ismail Sardashty released his song (Kochar), people called me Kochar. I sometimes get confused between the two names myself. I'm 20 years old now and have studied until the fifth grade, I was a very hard-working student. I would've loved to continue studying and I still feel sad about it, but I couldn't because my father was a soldier and it was very hard to continue. In recent years, people of my village have started giving more freedom to girls and value them to a point that males and females are close to being equal in all aspects. This can be especially noticed during Newroz celebrations. I hope all Kurds see all humans equally". ...

Dec 25 2020

December 25, 2020

“I don't believe that I have lost anything important so far in life and I know that I'm still young, but when that "Pride" car became as expensive as 100 million Toman, I was very upset. To reach my goals the future is very important to me because committing to those goals and promises I made to myself made me live far away from my family and my love. I fear God, and human’s stupidity while they are hungry. I think that anyone who has data or information shouldn't just keep them for themselves, they should share what they know so other people benefit from it as well. That's life for me, as well as have their creator in mind because he is the one who has provided everything for us humans. Sports have changed my life, and so I tell everyone to do sports even if it's for twenty seconds a day. Whenever you know the science about something then we should discuss it, if we thought that talking is useless and we don't agree on thoughts, then we should just leave the discussion without agreeing.” ...

Dec 23 2020

December 23, 2020

“When I was a teenager studying in high school I was really into sports, and the days where we had sports classes, I was especially playing volleyball and basketball. One day I was playing basketball, and my friends were playing heavy ball right next to our field, and suddenly one of the balls was thrown into the basketball, and I tried to help by throwing it back and out of nowhere someone grabbed my hand. I realized that it was our teacher. He asked me how long I have been practicing heavy ball without him knowing. He said that my friends have been practicing for six months, and that my throw went 5 meters further. I told him that I had never practiced it, and he said that heavy ball was a suitable sport for me. Ever since, I started playing heavy ball, and I was very successful in it, I even was rewarded several times”. ...

Dec 20 2020

December 20, 2020

“When I was in high school, I always had doubts why my parents' families where always around and where always talking about me. However, when I got to university, I realized that both of the families wanted me to marry someone they had chosen. One of the boys I knew in that family was always in my heart because a relative of mine had put in my head that I'd marry him, I had limited myself only to him as a kid, I never even talked with boys because I had believed that I was for him. I stayed that way until he finally proposed and I was the happiest girl alive. My mother had refuted this marriage from the beginning, but then she said that we were young and looked good together, so we had her blessings. After a while into our marriage, it slowly turned out that he didn't have a good past, and neither us nor his family knew about it unfortunately. Even though most of my age was waisted, but I'm thankful still because God loved me dearly. After that marriage I couldn't commit to any other man, and I gave all of my time to studying and working, and I am doing very well now”. ...

Dec 18 2020

December 18, 2020

“I have lost many family members. My parents and relatives, each in a different way and due to war. In the past few years, many of these houses were renovated, and we did it to, except for this side because I many memories here and I don't want to ruin it. It has many photos of my family, and the photos belong to a time where we were happy. My kids also come to this side and they get a happy feeling when they do. We stay together and take photos. This side represents my past, it is a side that can show all of my family at once to whomever visits it.” ...

Dec 16 2020

December 16, 2020

“I was eleven years old when I first started reading something I wasn't studying at school, and that was a book about the Egyptian Sinoha. My father used to always say that those books are not suitable for my age, but I kept reading them. I was proud that I had more knowledge than my friends. Questions started forming in my head, but I couldn't answer any of them, so I asked my father.-Dad, what is and who is God?-Son, God is our creator and he is what enlightens us.-Where have we come from?-According to God's speech, we come from humanity's parents, Adam and Hawa.-Where do we go when we die?-No one knows.That was all the answers my father could provide, and tens of questions were left unanswered. One day, my uncle come to our house, I remember that I was just a teenager, I asked him some questions. He said that they were philosophical questions, to get the answers you will have to know more about yourself, and that's to read more.” “I thought that if I went to college and read more, I would become a knowledgeable teacher and get all the answers I want. Now, after half of my age already gone, and gaining a master's degree and reading many philosophical, economical, managerial, religious, historical, and research books, as well as writing many speeches and working on literature, I still believe that I'm just a clueless student. The only conclusion I have gotten to in terms of Anthology is that maybe some things are a fact about the world, but the one thing that I truly believe is death.” ...

Dec 15 2020

December 15, 2020