Humans of South - Humans of Kurdistan

“They say your childhood dreams determine your future, I agree with that very much. It became clear to me after the dinosaur stories attracted me in my teenage years.What are dinosaurs? Where did they go? How big was the Brachiosaurus? I collected money when I was 16 to buy books about dinosaurs, the planets, life, and space. I still have them. I am a geologist, I study the rocks to find out what they are made of. Would you believe it, the rocks talk, yes! This is what I found out after 15 years of studying and working in geology.” “I am now working on the details of a research about the dinosaurs extinction when life ended 66 years ago after a meteor hit the earth. And how life started again. After much effort, I was able to find part of a meteor for the first time around Duhok. This success did not end there. There was another research afterwards about a new geological era around Duhok and Zakho, which many researchers failed to find. It seems like geology feels the same way about me as I do about it.” ...

Sep 03 2020

September 3, 2020

“I did not have a moment of joy in life. Our life was full of obstacles and difficulties. But now my sons have thankfully grown up and my life is much better because of them. My husband would make maximum a quarter or half a Dinar when he used to work, it didn’t cover any expenses. I didn’t know what to do with my children, I had no choice but to raise them on dried bread.One winter it was really cold, I borrowed three blankets without telling my husband, and we didn’t have any money. That night when my husband saw the blankets, he asked what are these? When I told him I had borrowed them, he said tomorrow you will either take them back or you leave the house! Next day I took the blankets back, I said you have to take them back my husband got mad at me. He didn’t agree and said you can pay me whenever you can, and if not, I forgive you. After a while we were able to collect money for the blankets and I went to pay him, he said I won’t take it, but I insisted and he said because you did as you promised, I will take two Dinars less.” ...

Sep 03 2020

September 3, 2020

“My name is Wasta Faisal, most of the people know me. I have been repairing photo and video cameras since I was a child. Because there was no work and the market were slow, I started repairing trimmers too. It is just my luck that people are now growing their beards and no one needs a trimmer anymore!Because there isn’t much work and I have a lot of time, I spend my days in the shop creating good video content and posting them on social media, I want to act as a social worker. Since my appearance on social media, more people know me and I have many more followers, I receive many regards every day. But unfortunately, a lot of people make up rumors about me and curse me without even knowing me.In most of the videos where I have talked about an issue, I have said it is useless at the end of the video as a complaint against the people. That phrase has now become my nickname ad it has made me popular.I have often heard in the bazar: There he is, that is Wasta It is useless.” ...

Sep 01 2020

September 1, 2020

“I have never been ashamed of any kind of work. To obtain an income, I have been willing to stand from early morning until the evening prayers and work and serve people. There have been absolutely worthless people, but I have had no choice but to serve them tea and water and say here you go. I have met a lot of people and have been in strange situations, but I have simply accepted all of it. I have always said, life is full of desolation in the same way it is full of happiness.I have often met people who drank their tea and said I don’t have money to pay. It has been very normal for me and I have even served him another tea. But what pains me is to see people perceive me as dumb and drink tea and leave without paying. I have been there many times, with rich, wise, and well-known people. It is common for a university professor with a doctorate degree to drink an ill-gotten tea for 250 IQDs and leave. I have unfortunately seen many of those.” ...

Aug 31 2020

August 31, 2020

“All the things that have happened in my life have been much more compared to my age, sometimes I feel like I have lived longer. Whatever I have longed for or planned for, I have been able to achieve. Even with many barriers that have often stopped me or have made me wait, I have never regretted my goals. When I was 12 years old, I started playing music at Kaziwa, Kurdistan Save the Children and chose violin. My sister gifted me my first instrument. After a few years, I became a teacher there, which was one of my childhood goals...

Aug 29 2020

August 29, 2020

“I always dress in traditional Kurdish clothes when I go to visit someone or even when I go to the bazar. We are not Europeans, we are Kurds and we live among the mountains. It is a shame to ruin your own culture. I once went to Sulaimani for office work. I was standing at a pickles’ shop when I overheard a young boy tell his friend: Hama have you seen anything like this? He said: no. Then he said: who do you think it is? Hama said: It is either Sheikh Mahmood Namr or Khula Pisa.” “My name is Taha, I am better known as Mam Taha Shirayi. We have been a poor community, but we have become strong and powerful because we lived in the mountains.We have always served Peshmerga fighters and I have been a Peshmerga myself. No one should be disloyal to his nation. I love vintage things, I have a binocular that Mam Jalal gave to me and I still keep it. I have kept and preserved many of my old weapons. I have bullet belts from 1974. When the Baath government chemically bombed Balisan, we became homeless and moved to Betwata. The government blew up our house, saying it is government property. They buried many people alive, they did all kinds of terrible things to the Kurds.” ...

Aug 27 2020

August 27, 2020

"When the Kurdish authority ceased in Kirkuk, I didn’t stay there anymore. I have been living in Erbil for a few years, I liked Erbil even as a child. Erbil is honestly the city of inclusivity, I am very happy here. They have never regarded me as a non-Hawleri since I have been here. I stay at a hotel for free and there is a restaurant whose owner hasn’t made me pay since I have been here.I was a political prisoner and my body still has signs of torture. I do not have a single Dinar for a salary. I hope one day I can be heeded to so that I don’t look for others to support me and I can stand on my own feet." ...

Aug 26 2020

August 26, 2020

"When birds grow, you can train them to stay around you and not fly far off. But I start training them before they can fly. That is for them to realize that I give them freedom and show them the places. At the same time, I train them to stay with me and not fly away. I teach the birds to live outside the cages.My love for animals started at an early age. They have always given me a special feeling. Back when we lived in Baghdad, we had a big garden. Whatever animals I saw there, I would take care of, be it turtles, hedgehogs, dogs or cats. After we moved to Sulaimani, I didn’t have space to take care of animals, which was very difficult for me, it made me really upset." "Another terrible situation is when people ward off animals because of the Coronavirus. Someone told me of a family who had thrown out two birds and that their mother had died. This is terrible because these animals cannot give you the virus.Although I used to rescue cats and dogs more often, this year I am mostly rescuing birds. Once when it was windy, I had not closed my window well, it opened and one of my birds flew out, even though he didn’t mean to fly off because he still couldn’t fly well, but he had gone to a neighbor’s house. I found him in 24 hours through social media and animals’ organizations. I once took Ascander with me to a trip in nature. I saw that even though he was scared, he was still very happy to fly in nature. I got in contact with a few places after that so that they could publish Ascander’s story and show people that birds’ home is not a cage and you can train them to be free and stay with you as well." ...

Aug 25 2020

August 25, 2020

"We lived in Baghdad in the 1960s, we consistently visited Sulaimani until 1980. I was born in Penjwen, but I spent my childhood and teenage years in Baghdad in the Qanbar Ali neighborhood. That city is still one of the cities that lighten my heart.I would try to run away from school, so I only studied up until fifth grade. I went into the shoe making factories from an early age. I enjoyed the experience so much that I did not eat on the first day. I had cut my hand, but I continued working with the blood on my hand. On my first day at work, they decided to give me a weekly payment and in a short period of time, I was able to become a master workman in the factories". "I had an extraordinary competence in shoe-making. Just by watching the master workmen, I would be able to do exactly what they did.I fell in love with my job, I would devotedly make shoes. At the same time, I was able to obtain a good deal of money and help my family as well, because my father was poor.Even after I became a Peshmerga in Baghdad, I did not give up my work. I would often go to the factory in my military uniform and would change there and start working. In 2007, we came back to Penjwen and to stay in the job, I opened this shoe repair shop." ...

Aug 23 2020

August 23, 2020

"No one knows where their interests lie, so people always have to trust that the best thing is what God has in plan for them.I went to everyone I could for a wasta (nepotism) just to be accepted at the college of sports’ education, but I never was, not even now. So I had no choice but to start free work and decided to work for myself. Fortunately I now own my own house and car, and have a family and 2 children. When I look around and see what has happened to those who got employed because of the salary cuts and I see that fortunately I lack nothing, I always say I am very thankful." ...

Aug 22 2020

August 22, 2020