Newroz Dijwar/JINHA

KIRKUK – In the city of Kirkuk, art students working among the ruins of war say that the art they are producing will build a new way of life in the city.

The people of Kirkuk, no strangers to the sounds of gunshots and bombardments, have most recently been targeted in Daesh attacks, in which many people were displaced and killed. The fine arts university in the city looks like another one of the city’s ruins from the outside. Inside, the walls are covered with colorful murals, the grounds are scattered with sculpture and theater students are rehearsing in the auditorium.

“If there’s art somewhere, there’s color; there’s life,” said first-year theater student Suzan Ahmed. “There’s a war in Kirkuk right now. Kirkuk hasn’t given up in the face of war, and we won’t give up our art.”

Several years ago, recalls Hawar Faris, a recent graduate of Kirkuk Fine Arts, a bomb exploded just outside the university during a rehearsal.

“We didn’t stop our rehearsal, in spite of the explosion,” she said. “Facing an explosion, we kept to art for support. Now the war is ongoing in Kirkuk. But we’ll keep our theater going.”

Hawar was long the only woman in her theater troupe. She has now won an international award for her work at a competition in Iran. She says that many women abandon theater after they graduate due to social pressure, and the amount of women in the audience has dropped off in recent years. Hawar has herself been the target of backlash from her relatives for her work in the theater.

“My father came out against it the strongest. My struggle with my family is ongoing,” she said. But she hasn’t given up.

Currently, Suzan and other Kirkuk students are working on productions designed to raise consciousness among female audiences.

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