Cultural festival connects communities
The sports stadium in Amedi is situated underneath an ancient citadel, overlooking an expansive green valley, cradled between parallel mountain chains.
“I don’t think there’s anywhere more beautiful to hold a festival,” Nafal Barwary says as she shows a visitor around. Barwary works with Dohuk’s General Directorate of Art and Culture.
Today the drama of the stadium’s setting is enhanced by the shiny sequins and bright printed skirts, checkered kaffiyeh, and baggy shalwar worn by participants and spectators at Amedi’s Peace, Culture and Arts Festival. Now in its third year, the festival celebrates local traditions and highlights Amedi’s multicultural heritage.
With generous funding from the government of Canada, Germany’s KfW Development Bank, and the People of Japan, UNICEF supports the cultural festival as part of the No Lost Generation initiative.
“The festival provides an opportunity for people of different religions and ethnicities to share their own culture, and to get to know others,” says Abdulrahman Mohammad, UNICEF Programme Officer.
“The goal is that local and displaced children and youth use art as a means of dialogue about the importance of unity in Iraq.”
Sima, 7, from Zakho and her cousin Bina, 6, from Dohuk (pictured above), said they were happy to meet children from other parts of the country. About 600 people participated in the event and 3,000 attended. Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqi youth also took part.
Backstage, Rind, 8, gets ready to sing for the crowd. “I like the festival because there are so many things — art, songs, Tom and Jerry.”
When Rind takes the stage, Kurdish children dance together with those who’ve been displaced by violence in Mosul, Ninewa and Anbar.
Cultural exhibitions and art displays surround the stage on the stadium’s red running track. In one corner, a group of displaced Yazidi youth take selfies with an Assyrian musician in a feathered cap.
Hayat, 17, is one of the group. She fled violence in Sinjar last year and now lives in Kabarto, a camp for displaced Iraqis near Dohuk. “The festival is very nice,” she says. “It’s good to get out of the camp. It’s like taking a breath.”
Out here in the mountains, there’s no better place for fresh air.
Lindsay Mackenzie is a Consultant for UNICEF Iraq.
Photos: © UNICEF/Iraq/2015/Mackenzie
Direct donations to UNICEF Iraq: https://support.unicef.org/campaign/donate-now/donate
