Kurdistan
Screengrab from Rudaw video shows a theatrical performance by a renowned Kurdish dance group from northeastern Syria (Rojava) in Sulaimani on Saturday, September 27, 2025.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A theatrical performance by a renowned Kurdish dance group from northeastern Syria (Rojava) at an event organized by the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) has drawn condemnations by an Islamic party and a prominent preacher over its alleged anti-Islamic symbols.
The performance took place on the third day of the First Kurdish Studies Forum at the AUIS on Saturday, featuring a range of activities and workshops related to Kurdish studies.
Footage of the performance, which quickly went viral on social media, shows several women removing and throwing off their fully veiled, colorful niqabs, revealing men’s Kurdish traditional clothing underneath.
At the Hunergeha Welat concert in Sulaimani, performers removed garments symbolizing Islamic State (ISIS) oppression, revealing traditional Kurdish attire. pic.twitter.com/HYKynlVsgL
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) September 28, 2025
The performance was a sign to embody "the rescue of women from the tyranny of ISIS [Islamic State]," the AUIS said in a statement in response to the backlash, adding it does not bear responsibility for the content of any activities presented during the event. The university also said it hosted guests from the Kurdistan Region, and Kurdish areas of Syria, Turkey, and Iran, as well the US and Europe.
"One of the guests was Hunergeha Welat from Western Kurdistan [Rojava]. They attended the conference and participated in several musical and theatrical works," the statement read, adding that in a segment of the play, "as a symbol of women's liberation from the oppression of ISIS, they took off their burqas and had Kurdish clothes on, as a symbol of the end of the blood-shedding organization, which is against the high values of Islam such as freedom, coexistence and humanity."
Reactions
"What happened at the American university was a flagrant insult to the religion and faith of this Muslim nation," the Kurdistan Justice Group’s (Komal) Islamic scholar union said in a statement on Monday.
Komal is the second largest Islamic party in the Kurdistan Region.
The statement claimed that the performance was done to "mislead" the Kurdish nation.
"It is a bad start. If we, and our Muslim nation stay silent, they may aggress and insult our sacrednesses in a worse and more disgusting way," the union noted.
The union urged the public prosecutor in the Kurdistan Region to take action "against this violation and disrespect."
Haji Karwan, an influential Islamic preacher affiliated to the other Islamic party, Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), also criticized the university and called on it to issue an apology.
"Choosing the colors, and the clothes under the niqabs, and such acts they presented all are symbols of the homosexuals," Haji Karwan claimed during an interview with Rudaw on Sunday. "Such intentional shows have a bad message behind them."
He went on to claim that "the selection of these people is intended to defame the Islamic dress. They have deliberately chosen these colors because this subject has a bad intention behind it and to defame the Islamic dress. If ISIS was meant, all the clothes should have been black."
As part of the program, a video was played that dated back the time when Baghouz town, the last bastion of ISIS was liberated by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2019, showing women throwing off their headscarves and niqabs, and then burning them upon their surrender to the Kurdish force.
"What these women did was also wrong. They should not throw away their headscarves and clothes, because they symbolize Islam. We should not have such interpretations for Islam because of the bad actions of ISIS," Haji Karwan said.
The video of the show has been widely shared on social networks, with some people describing it as "an insult to Islamic dress" while others seeing it a pride of Kurds for overcoming ISIS and its ideology.
The group’s performance is a reenactment of one featured in a video clip that highlights freedom from ISIS.
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