ABSTRACT
The Jews of Kurdistan believe that their ancestors were exiled from northern Israel by the king of Assyria, between 733 and 722 BCE, and were settled in "Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes". The rural way of life was deeply rooted among the Jews of Kurdistan. The retribution versus the abusers and offenders of the Jews was lacking because of the inequity within the Kurdish society and the inferior standing of Jews. Reports from eyewitnesses and observers in Kurdistan from the 19th and early 20th centuries describe rural Jews as slaves, subjugated to tribal chieftains in isolated places. The Jews' non-tribal status and social inferiority facilitated acts of abduction, either by force or through temptation, of young Jewish women by Kurdish men, for whom it was not as complicated and dangerous as the abduction of tribal women.
