NOTES FROM THE FIELD: IRAQUI KURDISTAN
It was by chance that I found myself in Kurdistan. Earlier, personal, professional and world events would have it that I would not be able go to Iran as planned, so when the chance to go to Kurdistan presented itself, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to visit a country that most fear, yet few, including myself know much about and have even less first hand on the ground experience with it's people to warrant such beliefs.
Shrouded in mystery and danger, Kurdistan is not the first place that comes to mind as a destination and we certainly don't get many, or any, requests from clients to do fieldwork there. Decades of scaremongering headlines of war, genocide, ISIS, and Peshmergas, had ensured that Kurdistan was not on my bucket list and certainly not on the radar of the global brands we work with.
While I, admittedly, knew nothing about Kurdistan, and had no first, or even second hand experience, I was surprised to find that those around me, also without any first hand knowledge, those who we could consider part of the privileged, liberal elite, were perplexed. Why would I consider risking my safety, possibly my life, by visiting such a dangerous dusty backwater and without an exploitable market economy to speak of? Even my family almost forbade me to go, stating that I would be going into "One of the world's most politically unstable and dangerous countries!" A whirlwind of images of women shrouded in burqas, Peshmergas and terrorists riding around in their dust covered Toyota pickup trucks brandishing swords, ISIS flags and AK47s declaring war on women and the West, clouded their imaginations and to some extent, even my own.
It is unfortunate that two decades later, that these images remain imprinted in our collective memory when we think of the less glossy and glitzy countries of the Middle East like Iraq, and by association, Kurdistan. So it came to be, that this pseudo-ethnographer, driven by an unquenchable need to understand the people and cultures that we share our planet with, mildly fearless at times yet always curious, went off to discover Kurdistan and it's people.
ERBIL, KURDISTAN
Flying into Erbil, (Hawler in Kurdish), suddenly the surrounding plains give way to the bright lights of the city rising out from the darkness of Kurdistan’s past. Immediately, I am blown away by the sheer size of this metropolis. Clearly not the backwater I had envisioned, but instead a dynamic and thriving city, proudly showcasing its prosperity and growth.
With the price of real estate in Erbil rivaling London or Paris, the “Next" or "Second Dubai“ as it is proudly called by locals, is eager to shed the outdated Western narratives and attract foreign capital and tourism. Information from the Kurdish government and the media, Instagram or YouTube, would not prepare me for what I would find on the ground.
A forest of construction cranes and Western style skyscrapers rising up among mosques, the citadel and its shopping malls, luxury hotels and their bomb blast walls. Gilded enclaves of gated communities with names such as Dream City or Empire World catering to the local and foreign elite along with the bars and discotheques they frequent.
The “Dubaization” of Erbil has clearly been undermined by war and crisis and there's a clear and visible divide fueled by the oil boom as the late models cars of the political and business elite clog the streets at rush hour and food delivery riders zip by on their motorcycles.
