Aradin, Kurdistan
"ISIS isn’t the main reason why Christians are leaving Iraq now,” says Elizabeth Sana. “It’s lack of work.” She is the supervisor of a women’s project in Aradin, a picturesque Christian village in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. Mosul, only 93 miles away, seems another world in this pure mountain air.
Since 2003, when Christians became a target for al-Qaeda, this village with hills that each spring are clad in emerald green, has provided a haven for Iraqis, whether Chaldean Catholics or Orthodox. “It is paradise,” says our taxi driver, as a rosary jangles over his windscreen mirror. There’s one problem, he adds glumly: “No jobs.”
