Iraqi Kurdish people-smuggler earned up to £100,000 a week for transporting hundreds of migrants from France to Britain, prosecutors said

LONDON,— A Kurdish man once described by French prosecutors as one of the most successful people smugglers operating along the English Channel is now living in Britain, reportedly claiming asylum while running businesses in the English Midlands, The Telegraph and BBC reported.

Twana Jamal, 46, an Iraqi Kurd, was sentenced to five years in prison in France in 2016 after police identified him as a key figure in a network moving migrants across the Channel in freight lorries.

French prosecutors said he was earning as much as £100,000 a week charging migrants between £4,500 and £5,000 each for passage to Britain. His nickname in the migrant camps was “Pasha,” a Turkish word for a person of high standing.

The BBC said it traced Jamal to a village in Leicestershire. Reporters observed him running two mini-marts, both called Candy Corner, located on opposite sides of the high street in Blaby.

Under British rules, asylum seekers are not permitted to work while their claims are being processed.

Contacted by an undercover reporter, Jamal said he was based in Leicester and was seeking asylum there. He said he had been in Britain since 2009.

“We know everyone in this city, this city is ours,” he told the reporter, adding that he was making “good money” and that there was work available moving cigarettes from a warehouse.

Jamal also admitted to driving a car without a valid licence. When asked about it, he said: “So what? Did I hit you?” He also said he was not concerned about being investigated. “No one touches us here,” he said. “Even the police won’t stop you.”

When the BBC confronted Jamal at one of the shops, he denied any involvement in people smuggling and denied being jailed in France.

When shown a photograph of him taken inside a French courtroom in 2016, he did not deny it was him. But when told the photo proved he had been arrested, he replied: “I don’t care.”

He also denied working at the shop, even though reporters had seen him behind the counter and moving stock.

According to the BBC, Jamal was connected to a Kurdish criminal network known as the Ranya Boys, which has been involved in people smuggling since the 2010s.

From around 2012 to 2016, he ran operations out of the Grand Synthe migrant camp near Dunkirk in northern France.

French prosecutors noted that Jamal used so many false names that he reportedly wrote his assumed identity inside his baseball cap to keep track of who he was supposed to be. In court, he claimed he had been wrongly identified, but was found guilty. A judge told him he would face deportation to Iraqi Kurdistan upon release.

Despite that ruling, he entered Britain. Anyone jailed for a year or more is normally barred from entering the country.

Lucy Moreton, a professional officer at the Immigration Services Union, told the BBC that since Britain left the European Union, it had become harder to run checks on lower-level crimes committed by people entering from Europe.

The BBC also said it had gathered evidence that 15 other convicted people smugglers were living in Britain under false identities.

Downing Street responded to the reports on Thursday, saying the government shared public concern and was working urgently to establish the facts.

“We will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system, and that is why we are deporting people with no right to be here at the highest rate in nearly a decade,” a spokesman said.

The Home Office said the BBC had failed to provide evidence strong enough to support its claims.

A spokesman said all asylum applicants face mandatory security checks covering identity, immigration history, and criminal background, and that Britain holds agreements with other countries to share criminal records information.

The spokesman added that immigration enforcement activity was at its highest level in British history, with arrests for illegal working up 83 percent and enforcement raids up 77 percent.

Asylum seekers arriving in Britain are fingerprinted and checked against domestic police databases.

However, those systems do not automatically pick up convictions recorded in foreign countries, which can leave gaps in the screening process.

Jamal refused to give his name when approached by reporters, though he said the Home Office and immigration authorities already knew who he was.

(With files from Telegraph.co.uk | BBC)

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VIENNA,— An Austrian court sentenced a 24-year-old Kurdish Syrian refugee to life in prison Wednesday for a 2025 knife attack in the southern town of Villach that killed a teenager and wounded five others.

A jury in the city of Klagenfurt unanimously found the man guilty of murder, five counts of attempted murder and terrorism-related offenses, media at the trial reported.

The defendant, who was not identified by name, was arrested minutes after stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death and injuring five other people with a jackknife in February 2025. He admitted carrying out the attack and pledging loyalty to Islamic State (IS/ISIS).

Prosecutors told the Klagenfurt court the man went through what they described as rapid radicalization through TikTok, a process that reportedly caught his own brother off guard, according to media covering the trial.

When the presiding judge asked through an interpreter whether he would repeat the attack if given the chance, the defendant nodded, national broadcaster ORF and news agency APA reported.

Court spokesman Christian Liebhauser-Karl told AFP the defendant said he was prepared to carry out such an act again at any time.

The defendant spoke little throughout proceedings. Strict security measures were in place, including a protective screen around him. Reporters were barred from bringing electronic devices into the courtroom.

He indicated he did not intend to appeal the sentence.

The attack marked the second deadly Islamist militant strike in Austria.

The first occurred in November 2020, when a gunman killed four people and injured 22 others in Vienna before police shot him dead.

The Klagenfurt trial, which opened Wednesday and was scheduled to run through Thursday, took place at the same time as proceedings against a 21-year-old charged with plotting an Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024, a plot that was stopped before it could be carried out.

That defendant, identified as Beran A, pleaded guilty to charges tied to the concert plot but denied other charges related to a separate alleged scheme. A ruling in that case is expected Thursday.

(With files from Reuters | AFP)

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Return to the Moon Paving the Way for the Mission to Mars

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Exactly at 6:35 p.m., this 1st Day of April, 2026, some three and half miles away from the Apollo Saturn Center, Artemis II, neatly and expectantly ascended toward the Moon on launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On board are four of the brightest and most skilled astronauts, moon-bound to reappraise the lunar environment for future human habitability.

This time, with the intention to develop an architectural plan with essential elements needed to build a permanent human habitat on the Moon. Leading the Crew is Commander Reid Wiseman, with fifteen years’ experience in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Flights, Pilot Victor Glover ensures mission success along the flight path from mission start to its safe return to Earth.

Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be keeping record of the Orion working operations, and communications back to the Ground Control team and ensuring overall mission success.

Key Reasons for Deep Space Exploration

Promoting the United States leadership in Space Exploration is the key persuasive factor for the Congress to support the NASA Artemis Program budget request in continuity. With the Artemis program comes jobs and science and technological advances across the globe and inspiration for the youth generation to engage in STEM studies.

Quoting from the NASA website: “Why Go to Space?” generates fundamental questions such as “Why are we here? How did it all begin? Are we alone? What comes next? and, How can we make our lives better on Earth?”. It can be further added that We Are Going because, life on Earth may not be permanently sustainable.

For example, a large asteroid or meteor could hit the earth to end human civilization. Human imagination is another reason that inspires further exploration of space. This could be behind the idea of a “Dream Coming True”. Recall the famous quote by William Arthur Ward, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it”! The driving force beyond exploration is human imagination wondering to answer the questions above. “Why Not Go to Space?”

Letting Go of The Earth Gravity!

The Artemis, weighing three and half million pounds (3,500,000 lbf), with its powerful Rocket, the SLS (Space Launch System), provides the upward thrust that is one and a half times more than its weight to overcome the pull of the earth’s gravity.

While escaping the earth’s gravity requires technological challenges to produce the required thrust force to go to the moon, the return of the spacecraft can be done by free-falling back to earth. As a rock thrown up in the air returns back to earth, so does a rocket though with precise control, unless it is kept propelled in order to

go deeper in space. In its ten-day mission, the Orion spacecraft will go approximately 4700 miles beyond and around the Moon to investigate the hidden side of the lunar surface after which it will save fuel by entering a free fall back to earth in a precisely controlled descent with no extra energy required.

Orion! The Fifth Astronaut!

Artemis II Orion is equipped with real time data sensing, collection, sorting and displaying of the spacecraft and the crew’s vital health conditions. In a sense, the Orion Spacecraft, through its sophisticated state of advanced technology and AI thinking power, can self-diagnose and issue a spontaneous clean bill of health to the Crew saying “I feel Good! We are Going”. In reality, this level of technical sophistication, gives the Orion Spacecraft a personality of its own to be considered as the fifth Astronaut voyaging to the Moon and beyond in full safety!

Artemis and the Deep Space Architect

The Artemis program is not just about the powerful rocketry and technological sophistication or choosing a precise and safe navigation path and energy optimization during its 10-day mission. It is also about NASA’s long-term plan to return humanity back to the moon with the intention to create a permanent habitat to stay there for the longer term.

This means in addition to the Artemis SLS-Orion configuration other key elements of the space architect must be designed, built, tested and validated to be stationed in different key orbital positions in space to make deep space exploration possible.

In the upcoming cadence of Artemis missions, NASA plans a long-term commitment to Deep Space Exploration which will take decades to mature to standardized space missions equivalent to routine airplane flights on earth.

The architect of Deep Space Exploration involves several key elements with each element having a stand-alone technological challenge and sophisticated design and development to be stationed in space for future interplanetary travel. Following are some key elements required for readiness for humans to land on the surface of the moon by 2028 with the flight of Artemis IV. These are:

1. SLS-Orion Configuration. The building-blocks of the SLS-Orion was described in a previous article on this site and can be found at the following links:

   1. We Are Going! Destination Deep Space!

   2. Go Artemis! NASA’s Quest for Life Beyond Earth!

2. Moonbase construction, this program has replaced the building of the Lunar Gateway by which building the infrastructure for a moon camp is prioritized by NASA to be built on the surface of the moon. The delivery of construction materials to build the Moonbase will be by private Aerospace Space Flights called Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPC) which operate non-man-rated missions to the Moon using robotics.

3. 

   Human Landing System (HLS). This program is led by SpaceX to build the Starship Lander and by Blue Origin to build the Blue Moon Mark 2 commercial Lander.

4. Low Earth Orbit Docking Program. With this program the Orion capsule of Artemis III, will rendezvous with one of the above commercial landers in (3) to safely transfer the astronauts from the Orion to the Lander for future landing on the moon by the Artemis IV.

5. The Lunar Cruiser is a Toyota made Jeep-Shaped pressurized vehicle in which the Astronauts can explore the surface terrain and particularly the south side of the Moon where the search for frozen ice will be explored. The un-pressurized version of the rover is called the Lunar Transport Vehicle (LTV), made by Intuitive Machines.

6. Artemis Exploration Ground System (EGS) is the key crucial ground-based system to manage the assembly and launch of the Artemis and its safe flight to the Moon, and to manage the establishment of the Moonbase on the Lunar surface.

Another significant aspect of the Artemis II is that its powerful twin solid rocket boosters are labeled with the 250^th celebration of the founding of the United States. A time when a new system of governance separated the piety of human intentions from political intentions combining it with the spirit of scientific and technological innovations. Artemis II, and myriads of other innovations since, are the results of the past 250 years of political freedom and promotion of science and innovations in commerce and culture.

The United States economic power, leadership in Space and global influence around the world are owed to the establishments of the early educational institutes and their continuous expansions to date, that keep transforming America and the world into the future.

With the advancement in the science and technologies specifically related to Deep Space Exploration, the time may come soon for NASA and the Prime Contractors to establish an American Space University, dedicated to the development of space-travel related science and technologies of the future space exploration.

In conclusion, the Mission of the Artemis II, ushers in the new dawn of human exploration in deep space, starting with our astronauts returning to the Moon, and paving the path for future journeys to the Moon basecamp and then on to Mars as the next stepping stone to one day in the future exploring even beyond the Solar system for a planet out there that can support life.

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur, the President of Kurdish American Education Society, Los Angeles, U.S.

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Go Artemis! NASA’s Quest for Life Beyond Earth!

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Kurdish Protesters Interrupt Manchester City-Galatasaray Match to Support Rojava

MANCHESTER,— During the UEFA Champions League match between Manchester City and Galatasaray on Tuesday, four Kurdish youths entered Etihad Stadium, raising the Kurdish flag in a protest to show solidarity with Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava). The incident briefly interrupted the match.

The demonstration comes amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Western Kurdistan, where Syrian government Islamist forces have intensified attacks on Kurdish areas in recent weeks.

Kurds around the world have been holding rallies and protests to highlight the situation in Syrian Kurdistan.

According to social media footage, the youths entered the stadium during the match while chanting patriotic slogans. Security measures prevented all four from entering, and only three were able to reach the field. One of them was dressed in traditional Kurdish clothing.

The group raised the Kurdish flag before being detained and escorted out by stadium security.

“We felt it was necessary to act while Western Kurdistan faces serious challenges and the world is watching the Kurds. We wanted to bring the Kurdistan flag into the stadium and show it to the world,” one of the youths told Kurdish Channel8 TV.

He added that the demonstration aimed to draw attention to what they described as ongoing oppression and acts of violence against Kurds in the region.

The protest occurred as Syrian government Islamist militants, continue to advance into areas previously controlled by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces. Since mid-January, these operations have reached parts of Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and areas near the Kurdish province of Hasaka.

Syrian government forces have now fully surrounded the Kurdish town of Kobane, leaving residents without access to water, food, or electricity. The border town is encircled on three sides by Syrian forces and on the fourth side by Turkey.

Residents in Kobane have said that shortages of basic necessities are growing more severe, and the town has become increasingly crowded as people flee the advance of Syrian Islamist militias. The humanitarian situation is described as critical, with limited resources available for the displaced population.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights monitoring the region have reported widespread abuses against Kurdish civilians, including mass killings, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, and public dissemination of videos showing these crimes.

The Etihad Stadium demonstration is the latest in a series of global actions by Kurdish communities seeking international attention for the situation in Syrian Kurdistan.

(With files from Channel8.com)

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BRUSSELS,— Six people were injured, including two in critical condition, after a knife attack during a Kurdish demonstration in the Belgian city of Antwerp on Thursday evening, Belgian police said.

The attack occurred near the city’s Opera House at around 7:20 p.m. local time as members of the Kurdish community gathered to protest in support of Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava, Western Kurdistan) where where Kurdish forces have faced pressure from advancing Syrian government Islamist troops.

Police arrested four suspects shortly after the incident, and all injured individuals were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Police spokesman Wouter Bruyns told AFP that investigators were still working to establish the motive behind the assault.

Officers were reviewing surveillance camera footage from the area to determine whether additional suspects may have been involved or fled the scene.

Authorities said early findings suggested the suspects blended in with demonstrators before carrying out the stabbings.

The gathering included families, women, young people, and children, according to Orhan Kilic, a spokesperson for Navbel, an organization representing the Kurdish diaspora in Belgium.

Kilic said the attack took place as the demonstration was ending. He stated that a group of men suddenly produced knives and began attacking people at random.

He added that the victims were part of the group attending the protest and that the suspects appeared to have entered the demonstration without drawing attention beforehand.

Belgian police said the case was being treated as attempted murder and stressed that it was not classified as terrorism under Belgian law.

Security measures were reinforced in the surrounding area following the incident, and authorities said they remained in contact with community representatives.

The United Nations has said more than 150,000 people, most of them Kurds, have been displaced in the region following renewed clashes and a fragile ceasefire between Syrian government Islamist forces and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

Under growing military and political pressure from Damascus, which aims to reassert control across the country, the Kurdish forces has withdrawn from several areas in recent days.

The group has consolidated its presence in parts of Hasaka province, considered a central stronghold for Kurds in northeast Syria.

(With files from AFP)

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LONDON,— Six Kurdish individuals appeared in a British court on Friday, facing charges of belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, which is banned in Turkey, the United Kingdom, and several other countries.

Prosecutors told the court the defendants, aged between 24 and 63, were members of or claimed membership in the PKK. The organization was officially designated a “terrorist” group in Britain in 2001.

The six were charged following a police raid on a Kurdish Community Centre in north London in November 2024.

Additional charges against some defendants included organizing and speaking at meetings in 2023 and 2024 to support the PKK.

Despite the PKK’s announcement last year that it would disarm and disband, including a symbolic weapons-burning event, the group remains banned in the European Union, the United States, and other countries.

The defendants are Ercan Akbal, 57; Ali Boyraz, 63; Agit Karatas, 24; Berfin Kerban, 32; Turkan Ozcan, 60; and Mazlum Sayak, 28. All have pleaded not guilty to membership in a proscribed organization.

Akbal faces additional charges of arranging and addressing two meetings to promote PKK support. Ozcan and Sayak deny arranging two meetings for PKK support, while Boyraz and Karatas deny one count of speaking at a pro-PKK meeting.

Defense lawyer Larkin told the court that advocating for Kurdish self-determination is not illegal, but the methods used by the PKK led to its proscription.

The trial is expected to last up to three months.

The PKK launched an armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984 to demand autonomy for Kurds in Turkish Kurdistan.

Kurds make up nearly 30 percent of Turkey’s population of 85 million, according to 2012 statistics. Turkey reports that over 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas have died in the conflict.

(With files from Reuters | Agencies)

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PARIS,— A French criminal court on Tuesday sentenced eight men, including two Iraqi Kurds identified as organizers of the smuggling route, to prison terms ranging from three to fifteen years for their roles in the 2023 Channel disaster that killed seven migrants attempting to reach the United Kingdom.

The defendants were found guilty on charges that included involuntary manslaughter connected to the capsizing of an overloaded boat.

The group on trial consisted of two Iraqi nationals, six Afghans and one Sudanese man. Prosecutors said the accused helped manage a migrant-smuggling network responsible for arranging illegal passages from northern France toward British shores.

The proceedings were part of continuing efforts by French authorities to dismantle criminal groups operating between France, Germany and the UK.

The two 45-year-old Iraqi Kurds received the longest sentences of twelve and fifteen years.

Investigators described them as the principal coordinators responsible for organizing routes and logistical support that ultimately contributed to the fatal journey in which seven Afghans drowned after the vessel’s engine reportedly failed.

The remaining convicted defendants, aged 23 to 45, received penalties consistent with what prosecutors requested.

A ninth man, a Sudanese national from Darfur, was acquitted following a request by the prosecutor’s office, which argued he should be recognized as a victim rather than treated as a participant in the operation.

Authorities said he had been placed on the boat under circumstances that did not justify criminal responsibility.

During the ruling, the presiding judge stated that the defendants exploited people facing significant vulnerability and seeking passage to Britain.

The judge said that those convicted of manslaughter created the conditions that led to the deaths and exposed the other passengers to immediate danger before rescue teams could intervene.

Most of the defendants denied involvement in the crossing or in the network behind it. The Sudanese man who was acquitted addressed the court about the tragedy but denied operating the vessel.

Investigators determined that sixty-seven people had been placed on the boat when it overturned in August 2023.

All seven fatalities were Afghan nationals, while sixty other passengers were rescued through a combined response from French and British emergency services.

The investigative file presented to the court described the smuggling operation as a structured system with organizers in both France and Germany.

Officials said an Iraqi-Kurdish group based in Germany handled logistics, while an Afghan group oversaw migrant recruitment.

France and the United Kingdom have introduced cooperative measures aimed at reducing irregular migration to Britain and targeting the smuggling networks involved.

French courts continue to handle similar cases, including one earlier this year in Lille, where a separate group of Afghans and Iraqi Kurds received prison terms following a 2022 capsizing that resulted in eight deaths.

(With files from AFP)

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Kurdish Director Mano Khalil completes filming his new movie Moments

Director Mano Khalil, a Syrian filmmaker of Kurdish origin with Swiss citizenship, has completed the filming of his feature motion picture Moments, which was shot in Switzerland.

The film is produced by Frame Film for cinema and television and features a diverse ensemble cast that includes international, Swiss, Kurdish, and Arab actors.

Among them are the Swiss actress and stage and screen icon Heidi Maria Glössner, the actress Sabina Timoteo, as well as Syrian Kurdish and Arab actors such as Shirwan Haji and Jalal Al-Tawil, along with the Kurdish actors Ismail Zagros and Salar Salem and many additional talented performers.

The film represents the conclusion of a trilogy that Khalil began in his earlier works. The first film, The Swallow, examined the period of youth through the children’s search for their roots as they matured.

The second film, Neighbours, explored childhood from the perspective of a Kurdish child who experienced life under Syrian Baathist fascism.

Khalil now completes the trilogy with Moments, which presents three interwoven narratives that address human adulthood and engage with themes of belonging, ethics, wisdom, and emotional experience.

Inspired by true events, Moments presents a social drama centered on the Syrian surgeon Waheed, played by Jalal Al-Tawil. During the era of the former regime, he is forced to flee to Switzerland because he provided secret medical treatment to the wounded.

He leaves behind his wife and two daughters and lives as a refugee in Switzerland while searching for them until the fall and escape of the Syrian Baathist dictator. Waheed’s narrative intersects with that of Monica, portrayed by Sabina Timoteo, a case officer in the asylum system who becomes deeply affected by the emotional weight of refugees’ stories.

The final storyline follows Samo, played by Ismail Zagros, a fast-food restaurant owner who becomes entangled in unforeseen complications caused by his greedy neighbor.

The film ultimately forms a unified narrative concerned with displacement and loss and seeks to address three fundamental questions in Aristotle’s philosophy of human existence: ethics, emotion, and reason.

Moments conveys a narrative rich in emotional depth yet distinguished by subtle humor. It demonstrates how unexpected encounters provide the characters with moments of courage and openness and allow new paths to emerge within their lives.

The film was shot in the Swiss city of Bern and employs multiple languages, including German, Kurdish, Arabic, French, and Turkish. It will be prepared for film festivals and theatrical release following the completion of post-production.

Mano Khalil is a Kurdish director who studied cinema in former Czechoslovakia. He worked for a period in Czechoslovak Television and, upon returning to Syria, produced a film about Baathist practices in the Kurdish Jazira region and the fascist indoctrination imposed on schoolchildren by the Baath regime.

This film, titled Where God Sleeps, was completed in 1992. Khalil later migrated to Switzerland, where he currently resides and works as a director and producer of narrative and documentary films for cinema and television.

His internationally recognized films include Garden of Eden, The Taste of Honey (The Beekeeper), The Swallow, and his recent film Neighbours, which received more than seventy international awards, was screened at more than 250 film festivals, and was distributed in more than thirty countries.

Neighbours is regarded as the first film set during the Baath and Assad era to be made in the Kurdish language and features Kurdish actors alongside Arab actors such as Jalal Al-Tawil, Jay Abdo, Mazen Al-Natour, and Nasima Al-Daher.

Mano Khalil’s new film Moments represents an important example of how a Kurdish director of Syrian origin can engage with an Arab subject in a manner distinct from Arab filmmakers working in the Syrian cinematic field, who have not previously addressed Kurdish issues in their work.

The film demonstrates Khalil’s ability to build cultural bridges and illuminate stories from a humane perspective that transcends the ethnic and sectarian divisions instilled by the former regime, divisions whose effects unfortunately remain visible in Syrian society today.

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BERLIN,— A Kurdish group in Germany has filed a criminal complaint accusing self-proclaimed Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa of committing genocide against Yazidis, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, German prosecutors confirmed Monday.

The Kurdish Community of Germany (KGD) said it submitted the complaint last week to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe.

The group alleges that al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, played a leading role in atrocities committed against Kurdish Yazidis and other minorities in Syria and Iraq.

“Al-Golani shares direct responsibility for the genocide of Yazidi Kurds in 2014 and for the ongoing, systematic violence targeting ethnic and religious minorities,” said Mehmet Tanriverdi, KGD’s deputy chairman, in a statement.

He added that Germany’s principle of universal jurisdiction allows prosecutors to pursue such crimes regardless of where they occurred.

Al-Sharaa rose to power after his rebel coalition overthrew longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad late last year.

Al-Sharaa has a record steeped in “terrorism”. He emerged from the ranks of al-Qaida and ISIS, later creating the al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaida that terrorized civilians and carried out brutal attacks across the region, according to monitor groups.

Under his command, the group rebranded itself as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), but Western intelligence agencies and rights monitors say its ideology and tactics remain largely unchanged.

Despite his recent attempts to recast himself as a political leader, al-Sharaa’s legacy is defined by extremism, bloodshed, and years spent advancing jihadist violence under different names.

Although HTS was removed from the U

.S. list of terrorist organizations in July, al-Sharaa has attempted to distance himself from his extremist background and present a more moderate image since assuming the presidency.

He met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday in what officials described as part of efforts to rebuild diplomatic ties after years of conflict.

The Kurdish Community of Germany has criticized what it sees as growing political acceptance of al-Sharaa in Western countries.

The group also condemned German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s decision to invite the Syrian leader for talks on the possible repatriation of Syrian nationals currently living in Germany.

“The idea of hosting a suspected war criminal on German soil raises grave concerns,” the organization said.

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking religious minority rooted in northwest Iraq, suffered one of the worst massacres of the Islamic State’s campaign in August 2014.

The United Nations has classified the attacks as genocide, citing the mass killing of men and the abduction, rape, and enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women and girls.

(With files from AFP | Agencies)

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NEW YORK,— Kurdish fashion designer Lara Dizeyee has been listed among the “25 Most Inspirational People in the World for 2025” by the U.S.-based Gladys Magazine, a recognition that highlights her role in promoting Kurdish identity through modern fashion and design.

Dizeyee’s creative vision and cultural storytelling have placed her alongside global figures such as Nicole Kidman and David Beckham, marking a milestone for Kurdish representation in international media.

The BBC has released a new episode of its acclaimed documentary podcast series “In the Studio.” The 34-minute program follows her preparations for Milan Fashion Week, where she is set to debut her first major collection. The event represents a breakthrough for Kurdish fashion and a landmark moment for female designers from the Middle East.

Born in Vienna and raised in the United States, Dizeyee’s early life was shaped by displacement after her family fled Iraqi Kurdistan during years of conflict.

She later earned a degree in international relations from George Mason University in Virginia and went on to build a successful career in the oil and gas sector, holding leadership positions in various public institutions.

Despite her success, Dizeyee eventually shifted paths to pursue her lifelong passion for fashion and culture. Without formal training, she founded her own fashion label in Erbil, blending modern design techniques with traditional Kurdish craftsmanship.

Her creations, known for their vibrant colors, layered textures, and intricate detailing, reinterpret historical Kurdish garments for contemporary global audiences.

Her latest collection, titled “Milan Enchanted,” draws inspiration from Kurdish history and heritage, presenting a balance between cultural preservation and innovation. Dizeyee’s designs aim to keep Kurdish identity alive in the global fashion conversation.

The designer, daughter of well-known Kurdish artist Homer Dizayee, has lived and worked in Erbil for more than 15 years. She is fluent in five languages including English, Kurdish, Farsi, Arabic, and German, and describes her mission as one of connection and representation.

Speaking about her career transition, Dizeyee said she hopes to make Kurdish costume “a household name” and to share “the beauty and depth of Kurdish culture” through design.

Her journey from the oil industry to the international runway, as noted by Gladys Magazine, reflects a commitment to creativity, resilience, and cultural pride.

Both the BBC feature and Gladys Magazine recognition underscore Dizeyee’s growing influence in a global industry that continues to seek diverse voices and new perspectives rooted in heritage and authenticity.

(With files from Agencies)

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