ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish cultural group performed a play entitled “Panorama of Motherland” at Erbil’s Shar Square on Saturday for World Theatre Day, in which around 30 people participated.

“There is pressure in Kurdistan by our enemies, working on diminishing [our] nationalist force especially among the new generation,” Ahmed Mashkhati, the play’s director, told Rudaw English on Saturday. “The main aim [of the performance] is to provoke that force, to increase the morale of nationalism.” 

Duhok’s Folk Art group was formed in 1997 to preserve Kurdish culture. It currently has 42 members and has performed internationally.

The performance touches on the topics of Kurds, flag, land and martyrs, which Mashkhati says are all sacred in Kurdistan. The director preferred not to elaborate, leaving it open to the audience’s own interpretation.

The group has plans to perform in Sulaimani on Sunday afternoon, then Halabja, Soran and Duhok province in the following days. Mashkhati said they have tried to take the performance to Kirkuk as well, but to no avail.

“We tried to perform it in Kirkuk, but the art establishments there didn’t answer us. We have asked the security establishments, but we have had no answer so far,” said Mashkhati, adding that they will keep trying even if it took a year until they get permission.

“If they didn’t give us permission we will keep trying to perform it in Kirkuk, because Kirkuk is an inseparable part of Kurdistan in our opinion. If we don't receive an answer this week, we will try for a month, if there is no answer in months then we will try for a year, until we get a chance to perform in Kirkuk,” said Mashkhati.

Fatima Muslim, an actor with the group, says the latest performance has been different to what the group has done before.

“The difference between this work to others is this, that in other works we act in this work we dance as well,” she told Rudaw’s Hunar Rashid on Saturday.

World Theatre Day is celebrated worldwide on March 27. The day was initiated by the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in 1962 to promote theatre. 

Photos by Bilind T. Abdullah/ Rudaw