Kurdish Jews from Zakho, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, 1930s
From the 8th century BCE, Zakho was home to a sizeable Jewish population, and tradition has it that the name Zakho is derived from the Hebrew word zekhut (right, or privilege, but which can also be translated as “good deeds”) because its residents were generous and did good deeds. Most of the Jews worked as weavers, goldsmiths, and other artificers and maintained good relations with their Muslim Kurdish neighbors. In the early 1950s, the Iraqi government expelled all Jews from Zakho, and they mostly went to Jerusalem, preserving their special customs and Judeo-Neo-Aramaic Zakho dialect.
She is bedecked with elaborate silver jewelry, a large floral wrap (‘abayye), and hennaed fingernails. Her large disk and sheath amulets suggest that she is from the western part of Iran, perhaps in Iranian Kurdistan near Kermanshah, Tabriz, or Hamadan, all areas with large Jewish communities.
Such textiles were embroidered by a bride before her marriage as a table covering for Shabbat and other holidays, with the embroidered inscriptions often containing Kabbalistic material. The coloring and the form of the flowers are typical for design in many Jewish objects from the Kurdish part of Iran.