クルド人自治区を歩いたら噂とは全然違う現実が見えた…

クルド人自治区を歩いたら噂とは全然違う現実が見えた…

There are shoe shops on both sides. Hello! I got something. Oh, thank you! As-salamu alaykum. Do you want me to buy some water? He said, “Teach me YouTube.” K-A-N-T-A. This is it! Oh, subscribe to my channel! (laughs) Hello everyone, this is Kanta Hara. Right now, I’m in Duhok, the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq. The Kurds are often called the world’s largest ethnic minority without a country. They live across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. What makes them unique is that they don’t have a nation-state of their own. But here in Iraq, the Kurds do have an autonomous region. Today, I’ll be walking around Duhok
in the Kurdish region to see what kind of daily life people live here. Please stay with me until the end. Ms. Takato, thank you again for joining me today. This is Nahoko Takato, representative of Peace Cell Project. Could you tell me what kind of place Duhok
is? We’re in Duhok, a town in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. It’s mostly populated by Kurds. But this town has also accepted many refugees and internally displaced people from Iraq. Even now, there are many Syrian refugees and internally displaced Iraqis living here. I see. Thank you, I look forward to today as well. Thank you. So, Duhok— Duhok in the Kurdish region is located at the very north of Iraq. Compared to Baghdad, the capital in central Iraq where I was yesterday, and cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, which you can see in my past videos, Duhok, being in the north, is relatively cooler. Although, how hot is it now? It’s around 1 p.m. as I’m filming this, so it’s probably a little over 30 degrees Celsius. Well, it’s still hot. But since the air is dry, there’s none of that sticky humidity like in Japan. If you step into the shade, you feel a nice breeze. So overall, it feels easier to film here. People in Baghdad or the south, especially in the hottest summer months like July and August, face days where the temperature goes over 50 degrees. So people with money often come to Duhok as a summer retreat. But even as a “summer retreat,” the temperature here still hits 40 degrees. It’s not like Japan where, for example, Tokyo gets up to 37–38 degrees, but if you go to Karuizawa, a summer resort, it drops to about 25. Here in Iraq, a place over 40 degrees is considered a summer retreat. This Kurdish region is an area where Sunni Muslims live. But compared to other areas, it seems religion isn’t enforced as strictly here. So, especially in this Kurdish region, many women go out without wearing hijabs or covering their skin. In Baghdad, I did see some women like that too, but in places like Fallujah or Ramadi, religion was enforced very strictly and conservatively. So women there really covered up. Here in the Kurdish region, Western influence seems stronger, so many women walk around without covering their skin. This is a popular local restaurant we often come to. Yeah, yeah. Now they’re making kebabs. Ah, Iraqi-style meatballs? Like meatballs, made with lamb. Yes, in Iraq it’s lamb meat. Like this. Oh, wow, amazing. Like this. It might be a bit hard to see because of the reflection, but they’re making kebabs. What’s amazing is that no one minds being filmed. They welcome it with big smiles. They really love having their pictures taken. The skewers are super long. Maybe it’s easier to see from here? The skewers are really long. This one is lamb. He can’t hear us. What’s “mirishike” in Japanese? Chicken. Chicken, right. And this red one is lamb. Kurds are Muslims too. So of course, they don’t eat pork. Can I go in? Shall we take a look inside? The man said, “Come in! Take a look! Come in!” Is it okay if I film you cooking? Oh, thank you so much. He’s like, “Look! Look!” Oh, kebab? Can I go into the kitchen!? He told me, “Come inside and film.” Is it really okay? The kitchen. Amazing! They’re grilling kebabs. Wow, that’s some serious heat. He is sweating a lot. He’s grilling so boldly. Oh! Smells great. That delicious smell of meat cooking. Ah, he’s saying, “Film this side too.” Oh! So fast. He’s really good at slicing. Oh, “Film this too.” There are lots of toppings—macaroni, maybe? Instagram? OK, OK. I’ll share my Instagram later. YouTube? Yes! This is for YouTube! There are all kinds of vegetables. Cucumbers and red cabbage? Over there are pickles, and those might be olives. Tomatoes too—maybe these are served as starters? Oh, “Film this side too.” Unexpectedly, they told me, “Come into the kitchen and film.” I haven’t had that much in the African countries I’ve visited. It’s an incredibly welcoming place for YouTubers. People here are very cooperative about filming. Walking through the most vibrant downtown in Duhok. Now I’ve come to downtown Duhok—the busy shopping area. This is the market, called a “souk” locally. It’s a marketplace with tons of shops gathered together. As you can see, this long street just keeps going, with shops lined up on both the right and left. There are a ton of shoe stores around here. There are shoe shops on both sides. Hello! I’m a YouTuber from Japan… So this area was the shoe zone. Over this way, there are lots of smartphones. Right, left—the whole area is smartphones. Infinix—maybe a Chinese brand? And Iraq sees a strong presence from South Korea, so there’s SAMSUNG here—and SAMSUNG over there too. There are an incredible number of smartphones. These look like iPads—there’s the Apple logo. There are so many shops. Lots of locals are out shopping too, and with so many different stores, just looking around is super fun. I’ve gone a bit deeper into the market. Around here—oh— How are you? I’m good! (laughs) I’m a Japanese YouTuber. Welcome to Duhok. Thank you! I love Dohuk. I love you too. There are nut shops as well. They sell many kinds of nuts. I’m intentionally not filming it now, but there might be street children here. Sometimes kids come up and ask me for money. Earlier, a woman holding a small child asked, “Could you buy some soap?” So it’s more street vending than begging. Since this is a crowded area, I suppose—um— people who beg, and people from poorer communities, are likely to gather in places like this. There are lots of nuts around here. Wow—oh, snacks too. There are so many types of shops—it’s fun just to look around. Compared to countries I’ve filmed in before, it’s much easier to shoot here. Locals ask, “Are you a YouTuber?” and some people, like that man earlier, call out to me. People even say, “Take a video!” or “Take a photo!” So filming is relatively easy. Around here there are barbers, and maybe a CD shop, and sunglasses stores. Here they sell wallets and smartphone cases, and even ice cream. Ice cream here too. Impressions of the Kurdish region and Kurdish people— have you changed at all from what you’ve seen so far? The city is easy to walk in, there are so many shops, and it’s clearly developed. When people hear “Iraq,” many may think of war, but the economy here is quite stable. Let me keep looking around a bit more. I got permission to film, so I’m shooting inside the shop now. It’s a soap store. Isn’t this amazing? These shelves here are all soap, and over that way it’s soap all the way down. I think you can find some of these in Japan too— have you heard of Aleppo soap? By the way, it’s noon now, and you can hear the adhan outside. Can you hear it? You’ll hear it again—the adhan that calls people to prayer. While you take in this Islamic atmosphere— Aleppo in Syria— during the Syrian civil war it was once called a fierce battleground, but Aleppo has long been famous for soap. All along here it’s lined with soap—amazing. Ms. Takato, you’ve been to Aleppo in Syria too, right? Yes, I have—before the civil war. In Aleppo, there’s a wholesale district for soap. Uh-huh. Shops were packed with soap from floor to ceiling, lined up like walls made of soap. Wow! Yeah, it was overwhelming. Wow—this is impressive too, but the real thing is even more so? Yes. Lately the packaging has gotten stylish. True, true. In the last few years. Aleppo soap is popular in Japan too. Yeah. It looks like a good souvenir, so I think I’ll buy some. For the people who support me in Japan, I’m going to buy a bunch of small Aleppo soaps from Syria. How much is one bar of soap? Um, 1,000 Iraqi dinars. So 1,000 dinars each—about 0.76 US Dollar. That’s 6,000 dinars in total—around 4.58 US Dollar. I don’t have small change now, so I’ll pay with 25,000 Iraqi dinars. A 25,000-dinar note. The bag is really stylish. It has a nice Middle Eastern feel. By the way, “thank you” in Kurdish is “spas,” while in Arabic it’s “shukran.” This is the Kurdish region, though many people speak Arabic too. Spas—thank you. Alright, I got Aleppo soap from Syria! This is the busiest downtown area, so there are lots of people out. What stands out is there are quite a lot of women too. In the Kurdish region, among Kurdish people, many practice Sunni Islam. In more conservative areas, women are often full-time homemakers and many stay at home most of the time. In places like Fallujah or Ramadi that I visited before, there are many conservative Muslims, so you don’t see many women in the streets, and even when women are outside, many wear a niqab, showing only the eyes and covering the rest of the body, so you can’t really see what they look like. Here, women often don’t wear things like niqabs or hijabs to cover their skin, and they go out normally— with a more Western style of dress, you could say. I got something. Oh! Spas. He just gave me something like a croquette. It’s falafel. I had it in Baghdad too. Let’s eat. Mmm! So good! It’s a chickpea croquette, I think. Delicious! The one I had in Baghdad was great too, but this is even better! Yeah, tasty! For lunch, I found this place while walking, and got Syrian-style shawarma. It comes with my favorite garlic mayonnaise. It’s like a sandwich—pretty close to what we call kebab in Japan. Here it’s called shawarma, and today I’m having the Syrian-style one. I’ve done plenty of food reviews, so I’ll skip that today, and since I plan to keep walking after this, I’ll eat this and recharge! So, I had Syrian-type shawarma at this shop, and Syrian-style shawarma—Middle Eastern sandwiches—often use long, thin bread, and they’re characterized by the use of garlic mayonnaise. It seems the background of this is connected to their past lives as refugees. When Iraq was in turmoil, many Iraqis fled to Syria as refugees. and in the places they fled to, people discovered, “Oh, there’s Syrian-style food.” Then they came back to Iraq and often opened shops like this. There are other popular restaurants too— like people who fled to Italy as refugees, tasted authentic pizza there, then returned to Iraq and started pizzerias. That happens too. Of course many had a hard time living as refugees, but they encountered new food cultures where they fled, came back to their homeland, and used what they learned to run places like this—it seems that’s quite common. As I was filming, kids gathered around. Do you want me to buy some water? Alright then. (laughs) He said, “Tell me your YouTube channel.” K-A-N-T-A H-A-R-A. This is a cake shop. The shapes—and the colors—are quite something. This one’s a cake too. A ladybug cake. On this side there are cakes with drawings of sheep and ants. The colors are very vivid. I don’t really have room in my stomach to try it, but— It looks really beautiful. This part looks pretty sweet, but it also looks delicious. There’s an incredible variety of spices being sold here. And I think these are dates and dried fruits. Lots of different things are being sold. Ah, over here are apricots. And raisins. This area is saffron—maybe used for saffron rice? And chamomile. All of these are flowers. There are roses and many others—so colorful and beautiful. Through a PCP (Peace Cell Project) initiative, we make resin accessories. Inside here is chamomile harvested locally at home. Ah, so you put chamomile inside. This is an accessory made by PCP, and it has chamomile flowers inside, wow. The bright yellow center of the flower looks amazing. When the petals are dried, they crumble a bit, but it actually looks like glitter, which is nice. So we put them inside like this. There’s also a pink version, using pink roses. Wow! They’re dried like this— dried, and put inside. Are you selling these in Japan? That’s the plan. They’ll be available soon. Yes, from June 2025. From June 2025—will they be on online shops too? Yes, we plan to sell them online. And maybe also at pop-up stores. Please check them out, everyone. Yes, thank you. We’ve walked a little further inside now. Wow, the light is amazing here. This area is full of metal goods. These are copper items—coffee-related ones. In Japan too, at cafés you sometimes see iced coffee served in them. Copper mugs—those are sold here. Wow, so shiny and beautiful. Ah, this one—you can use it for iced coffee. Yes, it gets really cold. Yeah, it looks like it keeps things nice and cold. Hard to warm up. How about beer in this? Ah, that would be great—so stylish! Haha, perfect for camping. Yes, that’d be nice! There are also copper pans like this. Oh! You can fry eggs on them—great for camping. Yes, exactly. Maybe it’s just my stereotype, but— I feel like people in the Middle East really love shiny gold things. That’s no stereotype—we really love gold. We love it! Everyone’s favorite color is gold. I see—Dubai is also famous for its gold markets. Yes, it makes your eyes dazzle. Right. Haha. Now, I’ve heard there’s a street where we can drink chai. So I’m going to sit down and have a cup of chai. The person next to me invited me to sit here, and even gave me this pizza. In Iraq, people give you so many things—water, food. Honestly, I’m full all the time. Oh, the chai is here. The chai has arrived. I’ll drink it here on the street, like this. They treated me to chai. When I tried to pay for it, the guys sitting next to me had already paid for everything. This happens so often here. When I try to pay, people say, “I already paid,” or the shopkeepers say, “No money needed.” Everywhere I go, the locals treat me. Spas—thank you. Oh! Nice sound! The Kurds, the world’s largest stateless ethnic group— this time I walked through Duhok in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, and saw daily life as it really is. Your comments are a huge encouragement for making future videos. Please let me know your thoughts on this video in the comments. If you’d like to learn more about Japanese people abroad, and about realities not covered by mainstream media, please consider supporting my YouTube work. My overseas reporting is made possible thanks to the support of my subscribers. If you’d like to support my work, I’d be very grateful. Of course, only if it’s within your means. Would you consider becoming a monthly supporter? Membership starts at 1,000 yen per month. If you’re interested, please check the link to the Supporters Club homepage in the description. Thank you so much for watching until the very end. I’ll see you again in the next video. To be continued…

◆原貫太を応援するサポーターズクラブはこちら
https://community.camp-fire.jp/projects/view/599505

イラク北部にあるクルド人自治区ドホークを取材しました。

クルド人は、トルコ・シリア・イラン・イラクの4か国にまたがって暮らす、国を持たない世界最大の民族です。その中で唯一、イラク国内では「クルド自治区」として自治が認められています。

今回の動画では、ドホークの街を歩きながら現地の暮らしや人々の声に迫り、クルド人が直面している現状をお伝えします。中東情勢やクルド問題に関心のある方はもちろん、普段ニュースでは伝わらないリアルな日常を知りたい方にもおすすめです。

ぜひ最後までご覧ください。

※この動画は2025年5月に撮影したものです。最新の現地情勢を反映したものではありません。最新情報はニュースや外務省の発信をご確認ください。

◆高遠菜穂子さんが代表を務める一般社団法人ピース・セル・プロジェクトのHPはこちら
https://www.peacecellproject.org/donate

◆仕事依頼・お問い合わせはこちら

◆原貫太のオンラインサロンSynergyはこちら
https://peraichi.com/landing_pages/view/kantahara-salon

◆原貫太の書籍『世界を無視しない大人になるために』はこちら
紙版➡https://kantahara.thebase.in/items/5867180
Kindle版➡https://amzn.to/3fLTKb7

◆原貫太と行くウガンダ・スタディツアーはこちら
https://uganda-study-tour.hp.peraichi.com/

◆原貫太プロフィール
1994年生まれ。早稲田大学卒。フィリピンで物乞いをする少女と出会ったことをきっかけに、学生時代から国際協力活動を始める。在学中からアフリカの難民や元子ども兵士の支援に携わってきた。卒業後は組織に属さず、フリーランスとして国際協力活動を続ける。現在はアフリカを中心に世界各地で取材を行い、貧困や紛争といった国際問題をテーマに情報発信を続けている。著書に『あなたとSDGsをつなぐ「世界を正しく見る」習慣』、『世界は誰かの正義でできている アフリカで学んだ二元論に囚われない生き方』、『世界を無視しない大人になるために』などがある。

◆Twitterはこちら
Tweets by kantahara

◆Instagramはこちら
https://www.instagram.com/kantahara0422/

◆ブログはこちら
https://www.kantahara.com/

◆使用している素材サイト
①Shutterstockから引用している写真は、Shutterstock.comの許可を得ています。下記リンクから登録すると4,000円分のAmazonギフトカードが入手できます。
https://share.shutterstock.com/kantaharabicp

②下記リンクから素材サイト『Artlist』に登録すると、2ヶ月分が無料になります。
https://artlist.io/referral/3850694/Kanta

特別な言及がない限り、動画内に登場する写真や映像は視聴者の理解を助けるために使用しているものであり、写真や映像に映る特定の個人や団体、場所、物品等と動画の内容を必ずしも結びつけるものではありません。また、写真や映像に映る人物の肖像権を侵害する目的はありません。

Unless otherwise noted, the photos and videos are used just for helping viewers understand the content, and do not necessarily link the content of the video to specific individuals, groups, places, or goods in the photos and videos. It is not intended to infringe on the right of publicity of anyone appearing in the photos or videos.

このYouTubeチャンネルは、Amazon.co.jpを宣伝しリンクすることによってサイトが紹介料を獲得できる手段を提供することを目的に設定されたアフィリエイト宣伝プログラムである、Amazonアソシエイト・プログラムの参加者です。

#イラク
#クルド人
#原貫太の動画一覧はこちら