Halwest Karim
Originally published by Local Futures on March 31, 2026.
Across Kurdistan, the village has not been just a place of settlement; it has been a living ecological system, a web of deep interconnections among people, land, seeds, animals, water, and culture. Today, industrial agriculture drives urban expansion and centuries of political violence continue to weaken rural life. Yet a growing grassroots movement is regenerating the village as a space of ecological rejuvenation, cultural continuity, and political autonomy.
The Ecology Academy in collaboration with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung–Beirut Office, conducted a training on the principles of transitioning to a sustainable ecological village, held at Hawari Shar in Slemany province, Southern Kurdistan. The training engaged both old and young farmers, ecological activists, and agricultural engineers to explore how rebuilding natural village life can open new pathways toward ecological sustainability and community self-determination. More than a technical workshop, the training fostered a space to reconnect with the land, and collective memory, grounded in the belief that ecological transformation must also be social, political, and cultural.
Deep Roots: Neolithic Agriculture and Ecological Knowledge
Kurdistan is located at the heart of the Fertile Crescent, one of the world’s earliest lands of human civilization, agriculture, and village life, dating back to 10,000 BC. Archaeological locations, including Göbekli Tepe, Newala Çori, Çaxir Bazar, Çeme Xalan, Shanidar Cave, Jarmo, and Zawi Chemi, located along the foothills of the Toros-Zagros Mountains and the Tigris-Euphrates rivers, discover early settled communities that cultivated crops, raised livestock, and organized communal systems to live in harmony with nature (Braidwood, 1960; Zeder, 2011; Agelarakis, 2021).
This deep heritage spread a knowledge of ecological life, which is still present in Kurdish villages, including seed saving, water conservation, and community cooperation. Traditional practices were not primarily aimed at economic profit; rather, they were ecological, focused on conserving biodiversity and balancing human needs with the resources of local ecosystems.
Violence Against Land and Life: The Anfal Campaign
The constancy of this ecological heritage has been frequently damaged by war and nation-state violence. During the Anfal Campaign (1987–1988), thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed, and chemical weapons were used against rural populations in areas such as Halabja. More than 2,000 villages were destroyed, alienating Kurdish community from their land, seeds, and ecological life (Human Rights Watch, 1993).
The destruction was not only political but also ecological, targeting rural self administration, food sovereignty, and cultural diversity. In this context, returning to or rebuilding eco-village life and ecological agriculture represents not simply reconstruction, but resistance and regeneration, a process of rebuilding connections between people, land, and memory.
Industrial Agriculture and the Political Economy of Dependency
Since the 1970s, and particularly after 2003, the Kurdistan region, like much of the world, has been occupied by industrial agricultural methods and market-driven profit. The shift from ecological agriculture to monocultures and chemical dependency has depleted soil fertility, caused biodiversity loss, and displaced indigenous seed varieties that were adapted to local ecosystems (Altieri, 2004).
In addition to that, land privatization, rural depopulation, and rentier economic system that only relies on oil production have weakened village autonomy and increased attachment on external markets, policies and imported food.
Industrial agriculture has led to ecological and political crises. It has dominated seed production, land autonomy, and food sovereignty at a global scale, causing the weakening of local knowledge and self-reliance in villages (Shiva, 2016). To address this, eco-village initiatives highlighted food sovereignty and seed saving as the right of communities to produce their own food, conserve biodiversity, and maintain local economies.
Village Life as Ecological Culture
Kurdish villagers traditionally lived in harmony with nature, they used resources thoughtfully to reach the needs of people and animals. Shared resources, such as wells with regulated water and communal harvesting, helped sustain the village life socially. This knowledge was passed down through generations in daily life practices, seasonal cycles, cultural songs, and food traditions, rooting ecological awareness within the culture.
Integrating ecology and culture nurtured a social fabric rooted in cooperation. Communal responsibility and accountability toward land and soil were the main duties of village life, combining elements like communal work, shared decision-making, dancing and celebrations, all of which sustained life as community.
Women, Seeds, and the Continuity of Life
Historically, Kurdish women have played a key role in maintaining ecological knowledge and village resilience. They selected and saved indigenous seed, implemented natural farming methods, used herbal knowledge and passed agricultural knowledge into new generations. Women have been stewards of biodiversity and cultural traditions.
From my perspective, seed saving is an act of political autonomy and cultural resistance that maintains food sovereignty and defends land and self-determination. Therefore, in this initiative, women’s role and leadership are essential to rejuvenate harmony among the community, the land, and the ecology.
The Village as Future
Farmer participants from old and new generations criticised the ongoing progress of state-driven urbanization, chemical-dependant farming, and ecological destruction. They stated that pesticides and herbicides are harmful to soil, biodiversity, and human health. On the other hand, traditional or ecological agriculture, seed conservation, and community self-reliance were seen as time-tested methods for returning balance among people and nature.
Rejuvenating eco-village life is not about returning to the past; however, we can reimagine the present and the future rooted in indigenous heritage, ecological knowledge, and balance. It reconnects human beings with the land and autonomy, fostering alternatives to exploitative economic development and ecological destruction.
In this world, we are facing ecological crises and social fragmentation but the eco-village life can sustain a harmonious existence rooted in soil conservation, the life force of seeds and the communal care of community that rebuild life together.
This blog post is part 2 of a 2-part series on agro-ecological and village renewal in Kurdistan by Halwest Karim. Read part 1 ‘The Food You Eat Is Poisoned’.
Halwest Karim is a Kurdish woman from the resilient mountains of Kurdistan and a genocide survivor of the Anfal campaign. She carries a lived history of displacement, resistance, and ecological destruction. She is currently pursuing a PhD focused on the ecological and gendered impacts of the Green Revolution through an ecofeminism perspective. With a background in economics and a deep commitment to environmental justice and women’s rights, Halwest is presently serving as president of the Azadbun Organization in Sulaimanyah, Kurdistan Region or South of Kurdistan.
References:
1. Agelarakis, A. P. (2021). The Proto-Neolithic People of Zawi Chemi Village and Shanidar Cave in the Western Zagros Highlands: Adaptations, Innovations, and the Advent of Neolithic Revolution. Sumer, 67.
2. Altieri, M. A. (2018). Agroecology: the science of sustainable agriculture. CrC press.
3. Braidwood, R. J. (1960). The agricultural revolution. Scientific American, 203(3), 130-152.
4. Watch, M. E. Human Rights Watch (1993) Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds. New York: Human Rights Watch.
5. Shiva, V. (2016). Who really feeds the world?: The failures of agribusiness and the promise of agroecology. North Atlantic Books.
6. Zeder, M. A. (2011). The origins of agriculture in the Near East. Current anthropology, 52(S4), S221-S235.