The Sheikha, Talabani Tekiye, Kirkuk, 2016

Title: The Sheikha, Talabani Tekiye, Kirkuk, 2016
Creator: Taha, Lazha
Date Created: 30-Sep-16
Date: 2016-09-30
Place of Origin: Kirkuk
Language: Arabic
Collection: Middle East & North Africa Collections
Kirkuk’s Great Sufi Mosque
Program: International Digital Ephemera Project

Description: The Sheikha is a Turcoman, fluent in Turcoman, Arabic, Kurdish, and English. Her husband, Sheikh Yusuf Talabani, married her though she did not come from a Sheikh family. Given social and religious pressures, this indicates a personal understanding and choice of the Sheikha’s gifts, which are many. During this particular visit to the tekiye, the Sheikh was away, receiving treatment in Germany for a grave illness. The Sheikha stayed to support their community, to carry on the work of worship, but her concern for her husband made speech, at one point, difficult.