Iraqi Kurds carry fire torches as they celebrate Nowruz Day, a festival marking the first day of spring, Kurdish and Persian New Year in Akre, Iraq on March 20, 2024. Newroz or Nowruz means “new day” in Persian, and is celebrated to mark the arrival of spring and the first day of the Iranian calendar. It is widely celebrated in Persian and neighboring regions and is recognized on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Human List. (Photo by Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People gather for the second annual “Cat Beauty Festival” organized by Royal Veterinary Hospital in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq on July 2, 2025. Around 200 cats participated in the event, where the first round was determined by social media votes. The winner, a cat named “Gule Rana”, was selected by a jury. The festival aims to promote animal love and raise awareness about feline care. (Photo by Fariq Faraj Mahmood/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A Palestinian boy carries dates from palm trees during harvest season in southern Gaza September 25, 2016. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

A worker carries a carp freshwater fish at a breeding site in Iraq's central city of Najaf, on June 13, 2021. (Photo by Ali Najafi/AFP Photo)

A Palestinian man sells corn at Gaza Beach during sunset on August 8, 2021. (Photo by Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Commuters make their way through a flooded street after a heavy rain shower in Lahore on July 14, 2022. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

Children ride in the trunk of a car on a flooded street in Sanaa, Yemen August 1, 2016. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

In this photograph taken on September 22, 2016, a Pakistani devotee decorates symbolic paper boats, an offering to Muslim saint Abdulqadir Jilani as a way of giving thanks after their desire to give birth to a son was fulfilled, before dropping it into the water during an annual ceremony on the banks of the River Ravi in Lahore. The ceremony commemorates a centuries-old tale that Muslim saint Abdulqadir Jilani raised a sunken ship carrying a wedding party, at the pleading of the groom's mother, saving all the occupants. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)