Throughout the entirety of the first week in the month of December, the city of Duhok and multiple artists from across the globe will experience a film festival accompanied by the opportunity to watch and connect with the artistic community in the cinematic world. In this artistic event, which is taken place annually, Filmmakers from across the globe share their films and are invited to give insights into their implications within the particular messages they wish to portray.

The Duhok International Film Festival has managed to bring international filmmakers and films from across the globe; be it Germany, France, England, Sweden, and even the ones in neighboring countries such as Iran and Afghanistan. At this particular event, the distribution of awards based on the categories selected will be granted to International feature films and also documentaries, and the rest of the world too with an emphasis on Kurdish feature films and also documentaries. There always is a short film award as well for multiple languages and arts.

The Duhok IFF is a great opportunity for local artists and filmmakers to find professional opinions and to relate to and watch films within the duration of the film festival which takes place between the first of December all the way to the eighth.

Followed by the unfortunate events that have recently happened in Sulaymaniyah and Duhok, a fear has risen among the community about the safety of the gas systems . The leading cause of these explosions were found to be from a leakage in the gas tanks. More specifically from a system that has been installed within these last few years, called LPG.

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is an odorless, colorless liquid that rapidly turns into a gas at room temperature. To aid in finding leaks, an odorant is typically added to it.

LPG (either butane or propane), which is frequently used for process and space heating, cooking, and vehicular propulsion, is typically stored and supplied as a liquid. It has a high flammability rating.

LPG can leak as a liquid or a gas. If the liquid escapes, it will soon evaporate and create a sizable cloud of gas, which is heavier than the air and will fall to the earth. LPG vapors have a great range along the ground and can gather in basements or drains. The gas can burn or explode when it comes in contact with an ignition source. Cylinders, if caught up in fire, can burst and explode, causing even more damage than a fire, collapsing a whole building as it happened in a residential house in Sulaymaniyah, and a student dormitory in Duhok. In high quantities, LPG can serve as an asphyxiant and produce cold burns on the skin.

People now fear using these systems, however, if they’re used and installed in the right way, they can be safe to have. There are regulations that must be followed when installing such systems, to ensure they don’t act as a hazard on the occupants.

The quality of the tanks should be up to standard. The storage of gas is also very important. LPG must be kept in a sufficient area where vessels or cylinders are positioned appropriately in accordance with the applicable norms of practice.

The plant must be correctly installed and certified by qualified individuals in accordance with the necessary criteria for design. The plant must be equipped with sufficient safety and monitoring controls, and operated by qualified individuals. Any structural or other alterations that could have an impact on the gas installation must be reported to the gas supplier by the tenants. A suitable schedule of maintenance and testing by qualified individuals is required. The plant needs to be recognizable and reachable for upkeep. Records of inspections and tests must be maintained. And lastly, to prevent fire and explosion, precautions must be taken, by the occupants themselves as well.

While efforts to end violence against women were largely ignored and underfunded in past years, that's beginning to change.

A conference was held this month to start a 16-day campaign to end violence against women. The campaign is being led by the Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and was initiated by the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, Hamid Naeem Al-Ghazi, who mentioned that combating violence against women is among the main priorities of the government.  The conference brought attention to the important role Iraqi women play in public life through government jobs, civil society, and human rights movements in preventing and ending violence against women and girls.

The conference called for laws to be passed, like the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, which was explained in the statement. In line with the Iraqi constitution and government plans, Al-Ghazi said that making the Second National Strategy for Iraqi Women (2023-2030) is an important step toward protecting women legally and socially.

About 1.3 million out of Iraq's 40 million people are at risk for different kinds of violence based on gender, and more than 75 percent of those people are women and girls. 77 percent of reported cases are related to domestic violence, but Iraqi experts on the ground say that many cases aren't reported because the people who did the harm aren't likely to be punished.

Stopping violence against women should be a top priority if we want to reach our long-term development goals. The campaign for ending violence against women plays a major role in helping raise awareness around not only the nation but also around the globe.

By: Baniz Wasman

The idea of infinity is powerful. The concepts of the infinity and the eternal have been a source of debate among philosophers, artists, intellectuals, scientists, and individuals from all walks of life throughout history.

The idea of infinity is very crucial in mathematics. Dealing with infinitely huge sets—collections of numbers that never end, such as the natural numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on—leads to the practically immediate appearance of infinity.

However, not all infinite sets are created equal. In reality, there are various sizes or levels of infinity; some infinite sets are enormously larger than others.

Georg Cantor, a brilliant mathematician, developed the theory of infinite sets in the late 19th century. Many of Cantor's theories and propositions form the cornerstone of contemporary mathematics. One of Cantor's most interesting ideas was a method for comparing the dimensions of infinite sets and using this concept to demonstrate the existence of numerous infinities.

Some surprising facts that arise from this concept, is how the set of natural numbers, 1,2,3,4, and so on, is actually the same cardinality (or size) as the set of even numbers only, or odd numbers only. This happens as a result of forming a bijection (one-to-one correspondence) between the two sets. But then the set of all real numbers between zero and one, is a bigger size of infinity than the set of all natural numbers!

This can be proved by contradiction (a powerful technique in mathematics), and trying the diagonal method (a method to show that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the two sets, which means they can’t be the same “size”). No matter what alignment we attempt between the real numbers and the natural numbers, we are still able to create a number that does not appear in the correspondence.

The size of these two sets is different. The natural numbers and the real numbers are both infinite sets, but the real numbers constitute a set that is substantially larger than the naturals; they reflect some "higher level" of infinity. This leads to the deep and perhaps unsettling insight that there must be numerous levels of infinity. According to Cantor's theorem, there is always a set with a bigger cardinality for a given set.

Back in 2010 , FIFA officially announced Qatar as the host of the World Cup 2022. At that time, a lot of debates raised the question of ‘how is Qatar going to be prepared in terms of infrastructure?’ , and the heat of the small Middle Eastern country that may not be efficient was talked about. However, Qatar with the support of FIFA fulfilled this dream and it is expected to host over 1.5 million visitors for the sake of the tournament.

Qatar is a wealthy country that developed dramatically over the past decades. Their World Cup is the richest World Cup on the planet as they have spent $220 billion in 12 years. This huge amount of money was spent to build a strong infrastructure and gain the  appreciation and surprise from all visitors, particularly western audiences. It is also to give the biggest international football tournament a reasonable value that it deserves from a small part of the Middle East.

However, criticisms against Qatar escalated in the past weeks from the media and numerous sports figures as the Qatar government announced policies that did not seem to be favourable to the west. For instance, 48 hours before the first whistle of the World Cup, Qatar banned alcohol from sale around stadiums. As well as that, supporting homosexuality is forbidden. On the other hand, human rights organisations and activists hold Qatar responsible for the death of thousands of local and foreign workers who built the infrastructure the country is proud of.

Lastly, Qatar hosts the World Cup regardless of criticisms. FIFA President Gianni gave an extraordinary press conference on the eve of World Cup 2022. He indicated FIFA’s full support for Qatar as their values and policies should be respected.  He also accused the west of “hypocrisy” due to the recent judgements over the host country. It is a fact that since the tournament commenced, we have never witnessed chaos and problems that impact on the competition in a bad way. Apparently, World Cup fans in Qatar have not raised their voices yet because of something they expected to see better in a country of almost 3 million people.

What is STEM? STEM is more than just a field of study; it's a mindset and a set of transferable skills that could help the next generation tackle some of the world's most pressing problems. The acronym STEM refers to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, it’s not about being an expert in all of those things; instead, it’s about harnessing the essential transferable skills behind them. In STEM fields, learning is based on using real-world examples to solve problems.

 Kurdish women have made important contributions to the STEM fields, but why haven't we heard about them? Kurdish women's achievements could go unnoticed by the rest of the world because there aren't many books or articles about Kurdish women in general, let alone about their achievements. There are few specific analyses of Kurdish women's interactions within public spaces.

According to 2018 data, the STEM program in the Kurdish Region of Iraq, run in partnership with IsraAID and STEM Synergy with funding from the Mark Gelfand Family Charitable Trust, had a significant impact, with women and girls comprising 60% of students and 75% of teachers. Banaz Jalil, one of numerous Kurdish women involved in STEM, is the first to receive the Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future award. She is devoted to promoting the quality and safety of healthcare products, advancing the science and practice of pharmacy, particularly in LMICs, and advocating for women in STEM.

This year (2022), the First Global Symposium of Kurdish Women in Science was held in an effort to empower Kurdish women. The only way to create a progressive and welcoming society is to ensure women's equality. To accomplish this, the worldwide Kurdish community of scientists and professionals is essential.

By: Baniz Wasman