Storytelling Across the Divide

Between May 18 and 22, 2025, the Hardi Cultural Center in partnership with the Goethe Institute organized a 5-day storytelling and dialogue retreat at the Center. The workshop brought together women from across Iraq to foster healing, reflection, and solidarity through storytelling and creative writing. Throughout the retreat, participants engaged in meaningful cross-community conversations between Kurds and Arabs, Sunnis and Shias, Yezidis and Muslims, creating a rare space for openness, empathy, and mutual respect. The atmosphere was deeply moving and supportive, marked by moments of shared emotion and understanding. Participants often cried together as they listened to stories of lives shaped by conflict and loss, while also finding strength in one another’s resilience and compassion. The retreat concluded on a joyful and unifying note, as everyone sang each other’s songs, shared food, and celebrated a week of friendship, connection, and collective healing.