Dr Ariana Alazajani, an obstetrician and professor of medicine at Arbil University in Iraqi Kurdistan, has a number of reasons to be cautious about her future in post-war Iraq. One reason is because she is a Kurd, another is because she is a woman.

“When I studied in Baghdad, it was the same for all of us women,” she said, “none wanted a religion that held them down. But we Kurds had developed a different culture which is free of fundamentalism; men and women treat each other with respect.”