Abstract

Medical education and health care in Iraqi Kurdistan were oppressed by the regime of Saddam Hussein for four decades. There have been efforts to revive them by Kurdish and non-Kurdish professionals in and outside Kurdistan with the assistance of various governmental and non-governmental organisations. However, the health care and medical education systems in Iraqi Kurdistan require ongoing international support. Recent global awareness of the war on terror and attempts to rebuild the health care system should not concentrate only on the immediate effects of the war, but they should also focus on the wide-ranging implications of the previous dictatorship regime.