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National Identity, Self-Images and Picturing Others in History School Textbooks of the Kurdistan Regional Government

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Multiple Alterities

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Educational Media ((PSEM))

Abstract

School textbooks used in the areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq are an as yet unexplored area of study. This chapter thus constitutes the first analysis of these textbooks and reviews history and social studies textbooks in terms of their contribution to the construction of the Kurdish/Kurdistani national identity, and of their portrayal of Others and Otherness. This is to reveal the discourses, categories of difference, assumptions and views regarding these concepts as well as attempts made through the textbooks to answer the question of what it means to be a Kurd or a Kurdistani. The study also examines the strategy employed by the Kurdish authorities to create an “imagined community”. It argues that the textbooks aim to strengthen the process of nation-formation in the Kurdistan region and the creation of a nation-state (Kurdistan) within a nation-state (Iraq). The chapter concludes that while, chronologically, Mesopotamian Semitic groups and then the Arab-Muslims, Ottomans, Safavids and later the Arab-Iraqis, Persians, and Turks are othered, none of the groups is defamed, dehumanised or stigmatised.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Arab Islamic History, 2nd Grade intermediate, 2003; Modern and Contemporary History of the Arab Homeland, 6th Grade high school, 2001; The Ancient History of the Arab Homeland, 1st Grade intermediate, 2000.

  2. 2.

    See Modern and Contemporary History of the Arab Homeland, 6th Grade high school, 2011; Modern and Contemporary History of the Arab Homeland, 3rd Grade intermediate, 2011; Arab Islamic History, 2nd Grade intermediate, 2009.

  3. 3.

    In early 1923, the League of Nations appointed a committee to investigate British and Turkish claims on the Ottoman province of Mosul . In July 1926, the League of Nations voted in favour of incorporating the province into the newly created state of Iraq. The Kurdish people considered their inclusion in Iraq to be a betrayal by the great powers that had promised Kurdish independence in the Treaty of Sèvres.

  4. 4.

    During the 1890s and the World War I , the Ottoman army, along with Kurdish tribal fighters, forcibly relocated and massacred thousands of Chaldean and Assyrian civilians living in what are today predominantly Kurdish regions. See Travis (2010: 237–277, 293–294).

List of Textbooks Cited

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) History and Social Studies Textbooks

  • General Directorate of Curriculum and Publications. Babata Komalayatiyakan poli penjam (Social Studies 5th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2010a.

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  • ———. Babata Komalayatiyakan poli hawtam (Social Studies 7th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2010b.

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  • ———. Babata Komalayatiyakan poli chwaram (Social Studies 4th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2011a.

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  • ———. Babata Komalayatiyakan poli shasham (Social Studies 6th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2011b.

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  • ———. Babata Komalayatiyakan poli hashtam (Social Studies 8th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2011c.

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  • ———. Babata Komalayatiyakan poli noyam (Social Studies 9th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2011d.

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  • ———. Mejuy sharistaniyakan poli dayam (History of Civilizations 10th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2011e.

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  • ———. Mejuynwe w hawcharkh poli dwazdaham (Contemporary and Modern History 12th Grade). Erbil: Ministry of Education—Kurdistan Regional Government, 2011f.

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Iraqi History Textbooks Post-Ba’athist Regime

  • General Directorate of Curriculum. Al-Tarikh al-Arabi al-Islami lil-saf al-thani al-mutawasit (the Arab Islamic History 2nd Grade Intermediate School). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 2009.

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  • ———. Al-Tarikh al-hadith wa al-mu‘asir lil-watan al-Arabi lil-saf al-sadis al-adabi (The Modern and Contemporary History of the Arab Homeland 6th Grade High School—Humanities). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 2011a.

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  • ———. Al-Tarikh al-hadith wa al-mu‘asir lil-watan al-Arabi lil-saf al-thalith al-mutawasit (The Modern and Contemporary History of the Arab Homeland 3rd Grade Intermediate School). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 2011b.

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Iraqi History Textbooks during the Ba’athist Era

  • Republic of Iraq, Ministry of Education. Al-Tarikh al-hadith lil-watan al-Arabi lil-saf al-sadis al-ibtida'i (The Modern History of the Arab Homeland 6th Grade Primary School). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 1980.

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  • ———. Al-Tarikh al-qadim lil-watan al-Arabi lil-saf al-awal al-mutawasit (The Ancient History of the Arab Homeland 1st Grade Intermediate School). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 2000.

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  • ———. Al-Tarikh al-hadith wa al-mu‘asir lil-watan al-Arabi lil-saf al-sadis al-adabi (The Modern and Contemporary History of the Arab Homeland 6th Grade High School—Humanities). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 2001.

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  • ———. Al-Tarikh al-Arabi al-Islami lil-saf al-thani al-mutawasit (The Arab Islamic History 2nd Grade Intermediate School). Baghdad: Ministry of Education, 2003.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia

    Sherko Kirmanj

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  1. Sherko Kirmanj
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Elie Podeh

  2. School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and David Yellin Academic College, Jerusalem, Israel

    Samira Alayan

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Kirmanj, S. (2018). National Identity, Self-Images and Picturing Others in History School Textbooks of the Kurdistan Regional Government. In: Podeh, E., Alayan, S. (eds) Multiple Alterities. Palgrave Studies in Educational Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62244-6_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62244-6_14

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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