April 2003
World View

Iraqi People Groups of Iraq

The people living in Iraq are a diverse group. The Northern Kurds of Iraq make their living in much the same way as their relatives in Turkey and Iran, by farming and raising cattle and goats. Their homeland is also one of Iraq's major oil producing regions. Prior to the Persian Gulf War in 1991, many of them lived in cities and worked in the oil industry.

For centuries the Turkmen lived as nomadic herdsmen. In more recent years, however, many have changed to a "semi-nomadic lifestyle," living in permanent homes as well as in tents. Today, most of the Turkmen, known for making beautiful carpets and rugs, are farmers and cattle breeders. Women among the Turkmen are restricted and often treated as second-class citizens. They are slow to speak and reserved while in the presence of men. The Turkmen are generally tall and thin. They are physically strong and easily able to endure the harshness of their environment. The Turkmen love to play "Buzjashi", a wild polo-like game played by two teams on horseback. The game, which uses the headless carcass of a goat or calf as the "ball," can be very violent and go on for two or three days.

The Marsh Arabs of Iraq, a society of 500,000 people, have lived in and around an enormous freshwater wetland ecosystem in Iraq for some 5,000 years. Since the Marsh Arabs revolted against the Iraqi government during the Gulf War, they have been displaced from their homes due to the total destruction of the marshlands, which were drained, burned and dammed to the point that only remnants of them still exist. Only a few thousand of the Marsh Arabs remain. The rest have fled to refugee camps in Iran or have dispersed throughout Iraq.

Information for this worldview sketch taken from:

www.bethany.com/profiles/home.html

www.joshuaproject.net/

www.whn.org/content/Iraq.htm

www.usip.org/events/2002/1212_es.html