WVTF story: Iraqi Kurds in Virginia

Participants of the Iraqi Kurdistan Rural University Partnership Program pose with administrators from the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute during a reception at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center.

A group of Academics from Kurdistan, visiting Virginia Tech for 3 weeks this month, has watched from afar as their homeland faces attack by ISIS militants.

The group is here studying higher education practices and principles in order to bring them back to their home universities. It’s funded by the U.S. State Department and the Iraqi Embassy. When they left home, Kurdistan was in peace.

"We are not as safe as before we came here.  When we depart Kurdistan it was absolutely safe. Still we are safe but we are under the threat of these new terrorist groups," said Barzan Karim, from the University of Halabja.

Read more and listen to the radio story by WVTF's Robbie Harris.