Private Story
Kurdistan
When the Gulf War began, I, like most Americans, knew little about the Kurds. My first visit to the region was brief. Pleased to have the Western press witness the Kurds' pressing need for humanitarian aid, Iran granted me a five-day visa and access to the Kurdish refugee camps. It was barely enough time to leave Paris, cross the Iranian border and get to the "liberated" zone within Northern Iraq. While the world's attention was concentrated on the flight of the Kurds, I was drawn to the places from which they'd came. I drove in along the same road upon which many Kurds were still fleeing.
-S.M. from "Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History"