Theatre festival opens in Sulaimaniya

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: Sulaimaniya’s theatre festival on Monday opened at the Culture Hall with the participation of representatives of the province’s districts. Five late theatre actors, Majid Hamma Jawan, Mohammed Tawfeeq Jawer, Hiwa Aziz, Hafwal Ghafour, and Jalal Marif Babalah, were paid tribute during the opening ceremony of the festival. A monodrama, entitled ‘Suffering on the other side of the window’ by playwright Shawan Kareem, was presented during the ceremony. The modern city of Sulaimaniya, 364 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was founded in 1748 by a Kurdish prince known as Ibrahim Pasha Baban who named it for his father Sulaiman Pasha. Since being founded as the capital of a powerful Kurdish principality it has grown to about 1,800,000 people. Sulaimaniya, known as Zamwa prior to its founding, is the cultural center of the Sorani-speaking Kurds and an important economic centre for Iraqi Kurdistan. SS (P) 1