Causes and effects of ethnic conflict in Gharbi Mustafa’s when mountains weep

Abstract EN

This paper examines the causes and effects of ethnic conflict in Gharbi Mustafa’s When Mountains Weep.

The novel was published in 2013.

It relates the experience of a young man who is from the Duhok province, but is displaced with his family to the city of Mosul.

As a young kid, Hamko faces discrimination by the Arabs he is to live with as an outcome of the policies adopted by the regime then.

The paper falls into an introduction and two sections.

The introduction shows how the act of displacing the Kurds is handled both as a cause and effect of ethnic conflict in the novel.

Although this act is perpetrated by the ruling regime of the time, it creates tension and conflict between the major ethnic components in Iraq, Kurds and Arabs.

Section one shows how the act of displacement in When Mountains Weep is systematically perpetrated by the regime against the Kurds in Iraq, obviously resulting in discrimination between the Kurds and Arabs; and sometimes leading to the feeling of hatred towards each other.

Section two deals with the distinctive features of the Kurdish culture, namely with the Kurdish language and traditions, which shows that the Kurds cannot be forced into assimilation with the Arabic traditions despite being affected by them.

The conclusion shows that despite living in the same country, there are many differences between the Kurds and Arabs.

It shows that the regimes ruling Iraq have often tried to bring about a demographic change in the Kurdish-inhabited areas through the Arabization process for political reasons.

It also shows how the displacement of the Kurds affected the Kurds’ socio-economic conditions.