Inside Kurdistan

April Cuenca is from the Philippines. She moved two Erbil about two years ago and is a grants manager in Shareteah Humanitarian Organisation (SHO). She is also a certified yoga teacher, certified in trauma informed yoga, sound healing and therapy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We met the Kurdish-Belgian director Sahim Omar Kalifa in Zakho and we talked about his movies Baghdad Messi and Land of heroes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stella Martany is a fixer and journalist based out of Erbil. Like many fixers in KRI, she got her start covering the war against ISIS in Mosul, but she joins me today to talk about how she's developed since then, explaining the differences between reporting during and after the war and the challenges with both.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Isadora Gotts is a Ph. D. student whose background is primarily focused around Mosul's shifting economy after the 2017 liberation. She has now expanded her research towards focusing on the city's economic and cultural outlook as whole, with a particular emphasis towards its municipal planning and layout as well as how its economy affects and interacts with other cities like Erbil.  See omnystudio....

It's an Inside Kurdistan Pride extravaganza! Today we're joined by Lilith, an advocate and KRI transplant to come give us some of the best stories fun facts of past civilizations' queer icons. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second episode of our fixer series, Nasir talks about his background growing up in and leaving Iran, his work in Syria during the war from 2014-2018 and his continued work in KRI, specifically with his work as a translator and remote fixer during the past year's uprising in his home country.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Halan Akoiy is a fixer and producer in KRI and Iraq. He began his career covering the ISIS conflict in Mosul and has since branched out into delving into the cultural relations and history that defines contemporary Iraq and Kurdistan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Barwari is a former KRG and Iraqi Federal Government Minister whose work in public planning after the fall of the Ba'athist regime in the country helped to define both Iraq and KRI in the following decades. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With job recruiting becoming more decentralized and the influence of Artificial Intelligence growing, it's important to examine how the cultural values of a region may affect a vital aspect like employment. Carwan Rasoal is the founder and CEO of Genvalues, a job recruitment site that puts an emphasis on the ethical values of an employee- specifically with regards to ecological conservation, rathe...

Brenda Hershey is the president and  founder of TRY Global- be sure to check out their information below. https://www.tryglobal.org/ Upcoming training in Erbil (May 26-27): https://www.tryglobal.org/iraq  Donate to Syria project: https://gogetfunding.com/help-folks-in-northeast-syria-bring-trauma-recovery-yoga-to-their-communities/  Our research study: https://www.tryglobal.org/research Our Youtub...

Below are some of PLAY 97.1's programs, check them out here : "The Morning Show" is live three times a week at 8 AM and brings both local and global updates on entertainment and the media world alongside new music releases and artist updates, presented in local, easy-to relate-to Kurdish. Every week the show is joined by an interesting guest and the topic becomes the guest's project. Hip Hop On Tu...

Artin Barawi is the club manager and founder of Suli Football Friends. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Water is one of the most important growing topics in Iraq and KRI, and the most important aspect of understanding the water crisis of the region is understanding the historical decisions, from both the public and private sectors, that has allowed for pollution, drought and disease to spread and affect hundreds of communities whose futures are now at stake. Nabil Musa of Waterkeepers is an advocate...

Understanding the importance of climate change is difficult without understanding the larger economic political and cultural systems that have allowed the planet to get to the point where it is today. Intersectionality is a philosophical approach toward understanding the relationship between an unlimited number of different factors that indicate why a certain individual, community or country may h...

While we've touched on mental health through many different perspectives in the region, we've never actually covered one of the chief perpetrators of mental health issues in Iraq and KRI. The past 20 years of conflict has touched every single person in this region and the effects of first and second-hand trauma are complicated and vary on each individual's story. Center for Victims of Torture prov...

Children's rights is a difficult topic to cover in this region. This is largely due to a lack of centralized legislation around the topic. There are labor laws, education laws and criminal laws, but there is no centrally codified legislation that protects children in Iraq. This leads to a variety of different human rights infringements here, child labor serving as a prominent and growing example....

There are three major categories to focus on with regards to real estate in Iraq and KRI. The first two are financial and infrastructural, the money that changes hands here and the development plans that have rapidly changed certain areas of the cities in the region. But the third category - environmental sustainability - often goes overlooked. While water and electricity are quickly becoming lead...

Lelo majeed is the first woman to complete the Sandhurst Military Training Program for international military personnel. We discuss her training as well as the current situation with the Peshmerga forces and the political developments of the past six months due to the uprising in Iran See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are three major factors to consider when discussing real estate in Iraq: money and infrastructural issues often dominate the conversation. But the importance of environmentally sustainable construction is increasingly dominating the conversation around development in the country. Passive House construction is based around the concept of a single home having net-zero ecological footprint. Mus...

The idea of digital records is a fundamental cornerstone for well established, developed democracies all around the world. It's easy to take digitalization for granted. But the struggle to implement a digital system for areas such as migration, education and health is Deputy Minster Hiwa Afandi's task in the Kurdistan Regional Government. We discuss some these struggles, as well as digitalization'...

Mohammad Shwany is the CEO and founder of the Real Estate company Malumulk here in Erbil. In our conversation we talk about the economic system that has allowed for development, real estate and property ownership to skyrocket in this city. But we also focus on the weak points of that system, for example the lack of incentive to focus on safety, in light of the recent earthquakes that have come to...

There's not really much of a description to write for Namo Socks. We just liked the socks and decided to do a quick podcast interview. Check out Namo's website below, as well as our video below. https://kurdistanin.net/blog/namo-socks https://namosocks.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this second interview concerning abuse and exploitation committed against migrant workers, we speak with Brenda, who focuses on the issues workers from Ghana face in Erbil, KRI and Iraq. Specifically, we focus on the consequences of expired residency (iqama) that traps many Ghanaians in the country after their work contracts have expired. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Naseem Azeez is an activist focusing on sustainable development goals in Iraq and Kurdistan. She's specializing in climate action, gender equality and  Below, she's provided information on the Hurricane Island Project and how to vote for her: 1. Open the link: https://upglive.org/vote-naseem 2. Click on "Register to vote" and fill in the data. 3. Submit registration. 4. Then on the same page, afte...

With anti-advocacy legislation still in play in the Kurdistan Regional Government's Parliament, the situation for the queer community in Iraq and Kurdistan is more uncertain than it has been in decades. In this first of two episodes with guest Kween B, we explore the complicated nature of gender and politics in the region, as well as the issues the transgender community in Iraq and Kurdistan face...