Post-conflict textile crafts of Iraq: scoping study of Samawah and Erbil

A state of fragile peace exists in Iraq now, allowing it to be categorised as a post-conflict zone. This research questions the impact of the longstanding conflict in Iraq on the crafts of the State from the perspective of the Iraqi and Kurdish crafts people. It looks at the socio-economic changes in Iraq’s craft tradition, with a special focus on the crafts women of the region. This research explores the potential that crafts have as a means of sustainable income generation that in turn could contribute towards reconstruction and development of this post conflict region. The research hopes to build on the resulting outputs in a meaningful way by providing relevant training and capacity building interventions to promote the craft practices of the region1 . This proposal allows the ground work to be built by identification of impact of the conflict, the needs of the sector and the levels of support and intervention needed to rebuild the heritages of Iraq. 1 It is hoped that such capacity building interventions shall be undertaken as part of a larger application at a later stage 4 This research aims to identify the craft heritages particularly textile related crafts through a mapping exercise, which allows the identification of craft practices and the actors engaged in the sector of textile crafts in post-conflict Iraq. The project aims at developing needs based analysis by engaging with craft making communities in the regions identified to enable building of an evidence base that indicates the impact of the conflict and indicates the need for intervention through reconstruction based approaches that allow the rebuilding of this sector as defined by the stakeholders in Iraq.