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Kurdistan
Koya welder and trader Rasul Ibrahim, 68, enjoys a cup of tea on July 21, 2020. Photo: Zhelwan Z. Wali / Rudaw
KOYA, Kurdistan Region — Water may be the source of all life, but not for retired Peshmerga fighter Rasul Ibrahim.
The last time 68-year-old Ibrahim tasted water was in the fall of 1993. From then on, tea has been enough to keep him hydrated, despite the exhausting physical labor he undertakes every day.
"Whenever, I feel thirsty, I quench my thirst with a sip of tea and nothing else," Ibrahim, who lives in the town of Koya, 76 kilometres southeast of Erbil, told Rudaw English on Tuesday.
"Even when I was young, back in the 1960s and 70s, I never liked water and would rarely drink it. Whenever I felt thirsty, I'd drink tea instead," the father of seven explained. "When I knew I did not need water at all, which I hadn't wanted to taste, I decided to quit drinking it, on a day whose date I can't quite remember in the fall of 1993."
For 27 years, Ibrahim has been inseparable from his flask of tea, which sits beside him at home, at work, or when he hangs out with friends.
"Even when I take my medicine, I wash it down with tea," he added. "Doctors have advised me many times to at least take my medicine with water, but I have refused."
According to Harvard Medical School, people need around four to six cups of water each day to avoid dehydration.
"Warning signs of dehydration include weakness, low blood pressure, dizziness, confusion, or urine that's dark in color," according to Harvard.
Ibrahim's life has been riddled with adversity. Amid the turmoil of armed conflicts among the rival Kurdish political parties in the early 1990s, he and his family decided to move to Iran in the winter of 1993. Ibrahim lived and worked in many different cities during his 12-year stay in the country.
"I worked as a mobile welder in Qom, Tehran, Shahriar and Karaj," he said.
Since returning to his hometown, Ibrahim has become something of a local celebrity. By day, he works as a yellow tuk-tuk-bound welder; by evening, he sells dried herbs in the town's bazaar.
Ibrahim parked his tuk-tuk at the bazaar, where astonishment over his habits has yet to wear off.
"It's very bizarre for someone to live without water," Rabar Najib, a 29-year-old sandwich shop worker in the bazaar marvelled. "I couldn't believe it when I first heard it. But, when I got to know him, I learned he cannot live without tea - not without water, like the rest of us."
Bazaar shop owner Sherko Ismael, 48, told Rudaw English that Ibrahim's flasked tea is unrivaled.
"We do not go to tea shops when Mam [uncle] Rasul is around," Ismael said. "We go to him and he serves us delicious tea. We know he never runs out of tea - never."
At around noon, Ibrahim packed his welding equipment into the back of his old-model tuk tuk, and insisted that we follow him to his house for lunch.
As soon as we arrived, his grandchildren approached to hug him. He held the children in his arms as his son and wife brought food into the living room.
"I have never seen my father drink water in my whole life," his son Mohammed told us before we dived in to lunch."We tell him and pressure him all the time to drink water, because it is at the very least useful for the kidneys - but he says he only feels good with tea."
Water isn't the only thing Ibrahim avoids drinking, Mohammad says; soft drinks are also a no-go.
"No one but my husband lives without water," his wife Nishtiman said with laughter.
Some past studies have suggested that drinking tea is of ample health benefit, potentially even protecting against cancer.
"Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants, so it's got two things going for it," the BBC quotes public health nutritionist Dr. Carrie Ruxton as saying.
As we finished up our lunch, the tea-drinker told us of his strenuous second job routine.
"Every week, I climb the mountains of Kurdistan in Sulaimani and Erbil provinces to bring back thyme herb. I dry them at home and prepare them for sale," he said.
Ibrahim makes a mere 10,000 dinars ($8.45) a day from both of his physically draining jobs combined.
His only working companion, he said, is his "little tea flask."
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