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Iraq
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=== Personal Experience ===
August/September 2015 - "I hitched around iraqi kurdistan most of the time and never had problem getting rides. People were as expected very friendly and hospitable. The only thing making hitching less smooth were the numerous checkpoints and the Asayish (some kind of secret police). While most of the time I could pass trough the checkpoints easily I was stopped and interogated a few times. Most of the times these interrogations were just a few questions (where to, where from and why) and after 5 minutes I was back on the road. But on a few occasions I was kept for a longer amount of time . The longest of these encounters were while I tried to hitch to Amedi taking the big road in the east (trough Barzan). I was stopped halfway there and then brought to a local chief of the Peshmerga. During the whole time my poor driver had to stay as a translator, being the only krudish english speaker around. After a few hours of waiting and answering questions I was let go but was strongly advised by the official not to take this road any further but return to Erbil. According to them the Checkpoints wouldn't get any more relaxed from this point and cars would become more and more sparse anyway. Might have been just a lie to make me change course but in the end I did return to Erbil since the better part of the day was gone anyway.
From my overall experience I can say that at the beginning of these interrogations the officials can be unfriendly and might even make some amusingly exaggarated claims about you ( Faked papers or Israeli in disguise are my favorites). I didn't exactly help that I have a full somewhat longer grown beard as well. But just keep your cool, stay friendly and try not to tell them lies. They're just trying to keep the area safe and as soon as they realized that Im not a spy or came to join Daesh they became friendly and often even apologize for their behaviour.
During the month I stayed and hitched around iraqi Kurdistan I never felt unsave and I can only agree with what people say about the kurdish hospitality." [[User:WuKong|Wu Kong]]
Last time in January 2015 -''As a woman the people of Iraqi Kurdistan have always been very welcoming, but I also used to have quite a lot of problems with sexual harassment there. I started feeling much safer in Iraqi Kurdistan since I started learning more Kurdish. People are really astonished by this and immediately try to show your the best side of their region. I have almost had no one acting indecently since then. This applies to hitchhiking as much as to any other situation.'' [[User: Irisn]]
