Kurdish Nationalism on Stage: Performance, Politics and Resistance in Iraq

Since its emergence in the 1920s, Iraqi-Kurdish theatre was used as a tool of national identity building and modernisation. It promoted literacy, education and women's rights and became one of the most visible forms of Kurdish cultural nationalism by exploring folklore, myths, legends and local history and by celebrating heroes of the past. As time went on, by staging anti-feudalist and anti-monarchist plays, theatre became engaged in representing and legitimising the wider political moveme...