A Kurdish woman, Robar Ahmad, a graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts
in Baghdad, waited 17 years to open a ballet school in Kurdistan early
this year.

The school teaches ballet and performs in public. The students, aged
7-15, include both boys and girls.

This is the first school of its kind in a conservative society where
honor killings are still quite common.

According to a report issued by the Institute for War and Peace in the
U.S., the use of Arabic as a spoken language in the Kurdish provinces
is on the decline.

[People familiar with the situation in Kurdistan say that the teaching
of the Arabic language in most Kurdish school comes third, after
Kurdish and English.]

Sources: Al-Rafidyan, September 30, 2009; Akhbar al-Khaleej, Bahrain,
October 1, 2009