Reconceptualising peace, resisting stigma: the case of Hosta in the Kurdistan region of Iraq

Much has been written about minorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, yet Kurdish Gypsies have been consistently overlooked in various analyses of conflict, the socio-political arena, peacebuilding, and development. This paper is rooted in qualitative research conducted throughout early 2023 among a Kurdish Gypsy clan who self-identify as Hosta. The research is contextualized by the complicated nature of identity within a dominant Kurdish nationalist ideology which presents the KRI as a beacon of equity and cohesion. The paper utilizes an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to explore Hosta experiences of peace as characterized by structural violence and social (in)cohesion. Indicators of peace identified by Hosta in response to the degradation and poverty which they currently experience are presented alongside Hosta reactions and practices of everyday resistance to their enforced social positionality at the very bottom of the KRI’s hierarchy of citizenship.