BIARA, IRAQ: Students wash themselves before morning prayers...The Biara Madrassa--a religious school--is located high up in the mountainous Kurdish Hawraman region that makes up the Iran/Iraq border. Before 2003 the region was home to a fundamentalist Islamic group called Ansar al-Islam who used the school as a base. The Unites States military attacked the area and the madrassa numerous times during the 2003 invasion, finally pushing Ansar al-Islam out...Today the madrassa is home to 48 male students from all across Kurdish Iraq. The students leave their families and immerse themselves in their studies and the daily life of Koranic students...Photo by Besaran Tofiq
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