Kurds in Control - Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

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The Kurds in Control

The Kurds may be the only group powerful enough to keep Iraq from tearing itself apart. But who says that's what they want?

/2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/tanker-kid-714.jpg /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/tanker-kid-60.jpg Photograph by Ed Kashi /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/1-saints-of-muslims-714.jpg /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/1-saints-of-muslims-60.jpg Photograph by Ed Kashi /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/2-iraqi-grocery-shopping-714.jpg /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/2-iraqi-grocery-shopping-60.jpg Photograph by Ed Kashi /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/3-former-solidier-road-714.jpg /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/3-former-solidier-road-60.jpg Photograph by Ed Kashi /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/4-women-unit-714.jpg /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/4-women-unit-60.jpg Photograph by Ed Kashi peshmerga, women officers study military strategy at a base near Suleimaniya. During the Kurds' long struggle against Saddam Hussein, women at first worked behind the front lines building camps, tending the wounded, and spying on the enemy. But beginning in 1996 they officially took up arms as members of the Peshmerga Force for Women. "Kurdistan is totally different from the rest of Iraq," says Parwen Babaker, herself a minister of industry in the region. "Women ministers, judges, and soldiers are exercising an equivalent role as men." ]]> /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/5-kurdish-security-force-714.jpg /2006/01/iraqi-kurds/img/5-kurdish-security-force-60.jpg Photograph by Ed Kashi National Geographic writer Frank Viviano. "Suicide bombers, drive-by shootings, targeted assassinations, you name it." Kirkuk has been Kurdish for thousands of years, according to the Kurds' tradition, though it now lies just outside their de facto territory. Saddam Hussein evicted Kurds from the city and repopulated it with Arabs. But now the Kurds want Kirkuk back—and are returning by the thousands. There's more than ethnic pride and history at stake here: Kirkuk sits on one of Iraq's largest oil reserves.]]>