Kurdistan

Khatoon Khider used to sing folk songs about the suffering of her people, the Yazidi religious minority. After ISIS overran her hometown in northern Iraq, she put down her tambur instrument and picked up a gun, forming the first all-female Yazidi peshmerga battalion to fight the militant group.

Without a nation of their own, the Kurds have been fighting oppression for centuries, all the way to the present day. In fact, Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers are key forces right now in the battle against ISIS. But Kurdish history — a story of persecution, war and resilience — is largely untold. A new museum would help change that.

Sweden may seem far removed from the conflict in Iraq and Syria, but for a group of Kurdish Swedes, the battle is real — on Facebook.

ISIS-controlled Mosul is just two hours away from the Iraqi city of Erbil. But youth in the Kurdish capital aren’t cowering. Instead they are swimming, bowling and enjoying new movies and Chinese restaurants.

Turkey’s president claims the press has more freedom in Turkey than anywhere else. That doesn’t jibe with what’s happened to Fréderike Geerdink ever since the anti-terrorism police arrived at her door.