The joint six-month project “Eternal War? Long-Term Socioeconomic Consequences of the War in the Province of Halabja” of the Felsberg Institute for Education and Research (FIBW) and the University of Halabja and the University of Halabja from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is rapidly coming to an end. During a second data collection phase, indirect socio-economic long-term consequences of war in Halabja province were investigated using semi-standardized interviews among household members.

Under the leadership of Silvia Nicola, from the FIBW, a detailed questionnaire was compiled with more than 120 questions divided into several categories such as health, housing and infrastructure, income or agriculture. Two teams of two scientists each, a female and a male researcher from Halabja together with a third German-Kurdish team have divided the city of Halabja into zones to interview a total of 50 households. The households were chosen at random. The interviews took about 1.5 hours per household. In addition to answering the standardized questions, the household members were able to describe and contextualize their own experiences of war.

In addition to the household interviews, Silvia Nicola has conducted additional interviews with representatives of authorities or interest groups, such as the governor of Halabja, Mr Azad Tofiq, the mayor of Halabja, Mrs Nukhsha Nasih, various NGO leaders or farmers. These background discussions serve in particular to better understand the political and social framework of the study.

The project is now in the data evaluation phase. Over the next two months, a first version of the final report will be drafted, as well as several international joint publications prepared by scientists based in Iraqi Kurdistan and Germany.