I could spend forever providing a 'history' of the Kurds, their culture, their right to exist exactly where they are, but, it's much easier to read about it and explore 'the truth' on your own.
I'll be back.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Complimentary 'look see' from Amazon (click on)
A book about the people from ground level.
"The real attraction of Road through Kurdistan lies in its warm humanity. Hamilton is utterly free of colonial superciliousness, despite the odd reference to the childlike simplicity of the natives. Learning of the Kurdish love for flowers, he sets about building a Kurdish garden of his own, bartering local species for eucalyptus seedlings brought up from Baghdad. He insists that his roadside camp conform to local traditions of hospitality. And, in the depths of winter, he hunts side by side with neighbouring tribesmen." Nicholas Birch, The Times Literary Supplement
The Literary Supplement (click on)
Snakes and robbers
A Review by Nicholas Birch
In the days before the fall of Saddam Hussein, visitors wishing to side-step the Turkish blockade on Iraqi Kurdistan had two options: enter via Syria, or via Iran. The first, a dash across the Tigris just upstream of an Iraqi tank regiment, made better copy. But the second was far grander, along a road that snakes a hundred miles through the parallel ridges of the Zagros mountains and plunges down two deep ravines before finally emerging on the Mesopotomian plain at Arbil.
Built between 1928 and 1932 as part of a British plan to speed access to Tehran, the road was the work of hundreds of Kurdish, Arab, Iranian and Christian labourers, almost all unskilled, led by the New Zealand engineer A. M. Hamilton. His book, republished as part of the fine Tauris Parke Paperbacks series, tells of the years they spent together.
There is plenty of action: touchy robber chiefs quick on the draw, murders to solve, a black snake that glides into the hut one night to avenge -- so Hamilton's guards say -- his killing of its mate. Above all, there is the long struggle to blast a path through the precipitous Rowanduz gorge "What a land was this in which to attempt to build roads", Hamilton exclaims when he first sees the Rowanduz river far below, tributaries rushing in at crazy angles. And when, two years later, the final bridge is laid in place, "from the depths of the canyon there arose the exultant roar of men's voices that reached almost to the mountain tops".
The real attraction of Road through Kurdistan lies in its warm humanity. Hamilton is utterly free of colonial superciliousness, despite the odd reference to the childlike simplicity of the natives. Learning of the Kurdish love for flowers, he sets about building a Kurdish garden of his own, bartering local species for eucalyptus seedlings brought up from Baghdad. He insists that his roadside camp conform to local traditions of hospitality. And, in the depths of winter, he hunts side by side with neighbouring tribesmen.
"As the shafts of light strike upwards and silhouette the peaks in an azure setting, cold, fatigue and the hunt are forgotten, and like three primitive savages we gaze spell-bound, lost in the beauty of it all . . . "Wallah!" say the Kurdish lads, and their single word is full of meaning."
Nicholas Birch is a freelance journalist based in Turkey.
Muslim human rights violations can frequently include women. Girls. This is not an exclusively Kurdish problem. (click on)
There are some very strick religious precepts to marriage in the Kurdish culture. At times, no different than in Pakistan or Turkey, deadly.
'Honour killings' increasing in Britain as women stand up for their rights (click on)
By Karyn Miller and Tom Harper
(Filed: 16/07/2006)
The number of "honour killings" in Britain is rising, campaigners have said.
Their warning came after the brother and cousin of Samaira Nazir, 25, were sentenced to life imprisonment for her barbaric murder.
Miss Nazir, a recruitment consultant from Southall, west London, was murdered in April last year. She was strangled with a silk scarf, stabbed 18 times and had her throat cut. She had argued with her Pakistani family after rejecting an arranged marriage and falling in love with an Afghan asylum seeker. Her two nieces, aged two and four, were made to watch the murder, and were found spattered with her blood.
In Turkey, 'Honor Killing' Follows Families to Cities Women Are Victims Of Village Tradition (click on)
By Molly Moore
Washington Post
Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 8, 2001; Page A01
ISTANBUL -- By Sait Kina's way of thinking, his 13-year-old daughter brought nothing but dishonor to his family: She talked to boys on the street, she ran away from home, she was the subject of neighborhood gossip.
Two months ago, when she tried to run away yet again, Kina grabbed a kitchen knife and an ax and stabbed and beat the girl until she lay dead in the blood-smeared bathroom of the family's Istanbul apartment.
He then commanded one of his daughters-in-law to clean up the mess. When his two sons came home from work 14 hours later, he ordered them to dispose of the 5-foot-3 corpse, which had been wrapped in a carpet and a blanket. The girl's head had been so mutilated, police said, it was held together by a knotted cloth.
"I fulfilled my duty," Kina told police after he was arrested, according to investigators' reports presented in the court case against the father and his two sons. "We killed her for going out with boys."
Girl killed over love song (click on)
By ALEX PEAKEA YOUNG Asian woman was murdered for bringing disgrace on her family — after they heard a love song had been dedicated to her on a radio station, cops said yesterday.
The so-called honour killing was probed by West Yorkshire Police — but they met a wall of silence in the girl’s Pakistani community.
A conference in London was told yesterday the girl, in her late teens or early 20s, was taken abroad and probably murdered in Pakistan.
The conference on honour killings heard 117 deaths and disappearances of Asian women are being re-investigated.
Heshu Yones, 16, from Acton, West London, was stabbed 11 times by her dad before he slit her throat.
Her Kurdish Muslim father, jailed for life for murder in 2002, said he had to kill her because she formed a relationship with a Lebanese Christian.
'Honour killings' increasing in Britain as women stand up for their rights (click on)
By Karyn Miller and Tom Harper
(Filed: 16/07/2006)
The number of "honour killings" in Britain is rising, campaigners have said.
Their warning came after the brother and cousin of Samaira Nazir, 25, were sentenced to life imprisonment for her barbaric murder.
Miss Nazir, a recruitment consultant from Southall, west London, was murdered in April last year. She was strangled with a silk scarf, stabbed 18 times and had her throat cut. She had argued with her Pakistani family after rejecting an arranged marriage and falling in love with an Afghan asylum seeker. Her two nieces, aged two and four, were made to watch the murder, and were found spattered with her blood.
In Turkey, 'Honor Killing' Follows Families to Cities Women Are Victims Of Village Tradition (click on)
By Molly Moore
Washington Post
Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 8, 2001; Page A01
ISTANBUL -- By Sait Kina's way of thinking, his 13-year-old daughter brought nothing but dishonor to his family: She talked to boys on the street, she ran away from home, she was the subject of neighborhood gossip.
Two months ago, when she tried to run away yet again, Kina grabbed a kitchen knife and an ax and stabbed and beat the girl until she lay dead in the blood-smeared bathroom of the family's Istanbul apartment.
He then commanded one of his daughters-in-law to clean up the mess. When his two sons came home from work 14 hours later, he ordered them to dispose of the 5-foot-3 corpse, which had been wrapped in a carpet and a blanket. The girl's head had been so mutilated, police said, it was held together by a knotted cloth.
"I fulfilled my duty," Kina told police after he was arrested, according to investigators' reports presented in the court case against the father and his two sons. "We killed her for going out with boys."
Girl killed over love song (click on)
By ALEX PEAKEA YOUNG Asian woman was murdered for bringing disgrace on her family — after they heard a love song had been dedicated to her on a radio station, cops said yesterday.
The so-called honour killing was probed by West Yorkshire Police — but they met a wall of silence in the girl’s Pakistani community.
A conference in London was told yesterday the girl, in her late teens or early 20s, was taken abroad and probably murdered in Pakistan.
The conference on honour killings heard 117 deaths and disappearances of Asian women are being re-investigated.
Heshu Yones, 16, from Acton, West London, was stabbed 11 times by her dad before he slit her throat.
Her Kurdish Muslim father, jailed for life for murder in 2002, said he had to kill her because she formed a relationship with a Lebanese Christian.
"David and Layla" (click on)
In New York, it's love at first sight when hip TV producer David first lays eyes on voluptuous Layla - a mysterious, sensual dancer. Layla turns out to be a Kurdish Muslim refugee. Advised by his ironic French cameraman, David's attempts to woo Layla eventually succeed. But his family is dead against it, as is hers! Layla is faced with deportation. She must choose: Muslim Dr. Ahmad or Jewish David? Meanwhile, David's TV show playfully explores the correlation between sex, spice, joie de vivre, and politics! Will David and Layla follow their hearts to blast through centuries of religious animosity and war?
"Layla" by Bob Dylan (No. Tonight is not about Israel. Exactly.)
What'll you do when you get lonely
And nobody's waiting by your side?
You've been running and hiding much too long.
You know it's just your foolish pride.
Layla, you've got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.
I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.
And nobody's waiting by your side?
You've been running and hiding much too long.
You know it's just your foolish pride.
Layla, you've got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.
I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.
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