Much More on the Kurds Part 3
northern Iraq 1965
photographs and text © William Carter
This Carter photograph was taken in Yemen, prior to William Carter’s visit to Kurdistan. Newly arrived Carter had been traveling in Yemen with veteran New York Times correspondent Dana Adams Schmidt, who told Carter about then little-known Kurdistan and who later helped him get there.
Kurdish villagers beside a well-used road in northern Iraq
Kurdish village, northern Iraq
Shepherd boy in spring
Spring religious ritual, near the Iraq-Iran border
Spring religious ritual, near the Iran-Iraq border
Sorting grain on a rooftop
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By William Carter 
Thank for these amazing photos
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Parwiz Chicho
January 28, 2020 at 3:44 am
Dear Hishyar,
Your comment is patronizing, arrogant and absurd. These photos, dating from the 60s, are invaluable for historians and ethnographers of Kurdistan. Telling the photographer, who had the courage and drive to go to these regions when nobody else did (and was pretty dangerous as well), what he should focus on does take some huptze.
As for Kurdistan alone providing a safe haven for Jewish people when they were being discriminated by the rest of the world – Kurds were no better or worse than most of the world in this respect. (I suggest you read Ariel Sabar, “My Father’s Paradise” or Mordechai Zaken “Jwish Subjects and their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan.”)
Eszter Spät
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Eszter Spät
November 5, 2015 at 12:57 am
I appreciate your wonderful memories and thank you from my heart to make them available now.
But allow me one remark: I would think that you have sorted wrongly the first photograph in part 3. It can’t be from Kurdistan. Or ?
Best wishes.
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Alexander Sternberg
December 11, 2014 at 9:43 am
I must thank several of my Kurdish social media friends who so quickly advised me that the first image in my recent posting was a picture not of two Kurds but of two Arabs. As two or three sharp-eyed writers pointed out, these were not Peshmergas, but Yemenis. I had visited Yemen in 1964, with New York Times correspondent Dana Adams Schmidt, covering a civil war then being supported by the Egyptians in the south and the Saudis in the north. At some point in the ensuing 50 years, that Kodachrome slide was mistakenly misplaced among my Kurdish coverage of 1965, possibly in comings and goings between photo agencies.
As many of my Facebook and blog readers know by now, I have a special place in my heart for the Kurds. I have been amazed and grateful how many have responded positively to my photo-postings during these fast moving and critical times. Amid serious factional struggles, Kurdistan seems to be moving toward what we in the U.S. once called our own “new birth of freedom.”
— William Carter
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bywilliamcarter
December 12, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Dear Writer, please read more deeply about Kurdish history and also focus on their modern society…..deeply about culture and their arts,,,,,,,,,,,,,from music to defending………….do not just release photos taken from the borders,,,,,,,,,,,focus about our weeding ceremonies,,,,,,,,,Kurdish dancing,,,,,,,,,,,,national celebrations,,,,,,,,,,,,and the history of peace,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the only nation which provided a safe heaven for Jewish people when they being discriminated from all the world,,,,,,,,,,,,,Read more History please,,,,,
Dr. Hishyar A Najeeb
Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine
University of Leiecster
UK
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Hishyar A Najeeb
December 15, 2014 at 8:34 am