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Syria's pigeon game gets the bird over flu fears
30 May 2006 01:05:44 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Rasha Elass
DAMASCUS, May 30 (Reuters) - Hassan keeps about 200 pigeons on his roof, including a tall, elegant pair of Abbasi Yahudis with pearly-white fur covering their feet like boots.
However, he is banned from using his pigeons to play an unregulated and little-known game, one that has endured for centuries, because of bird flu fears.
"We used to see many. There were maybe a hundred flocks that flew on that hillside alone, engaging in the sport," said Hassan, who declined to give his full name, pointing to a neighbourhood on a Damascus hillside.
"But now we don't see them any more. Everyone is afraid the police will confiscate their birds."
About 10,000 domestic pigeons have been seized since neighbouring Turkey in January confirmed human deaths from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu, official figures show.
Another neighbour, Iraq, has also reported human deaths and birds have died from flu in Jordan and Israel.
Syria says it remains free of bird flu, but authorities have culled poultry near the Turkish border and banned pigeon sports, although the World Organisation for Animal Health says it is unclear if pigeons carry the virus.
The game, called "Kash Hamam" in Arabic, is one of strategy, requiring a poker-faced owner and well-trained pigeons.
"It's pigeon wars. Fanciers train their flock to lure away other people's pigeons," Marius Kociejowski, who is writing a book on the subject, told Reuters.
"When the original owner tries to reclaim his pigeon, the one who has lured it away denies he has it or offers to sell it back for a price."
A typical flock comprises 20 to 40 birds that circle over the fancier's roof.
JUST FANCY
While the game rarely attracts spectators, a sharp eye can spot it in southern Spain and Italy, the north African coast and beyond. There have even been sightings in New York.
In many Arab countries, as well as Turkey and Iran, Kash Hamam is a centuries-old tradition that has fallen in and out of favour. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Syria banned pigeons from the area near the Israeli border for fear that they might transport coded messages, a former security official said.
In Iraq, insurgents have used pigeons to mark the location of U.S. troops before launching an attack, according to news reports.
The men who practise this pastime -- women rarely do -- have also been saddled with a bad reputation.
"No one wants his daughter to marry a fancier. A fancier looks down into other people's courtyards to watch unveiled women. He lies about the birds he leads astray from other flocks," Kociejowski said.
Pigeon fanciers are subject to such social stigma that Syrian courts do not accept their testimony.
"If they are willing to lie just to add a pigeon to their flock, then they're not trustworthy and judges customarily will not take their testimony," said lawyer Razi Diab.
"THIEVES' MARKET"
Fanciers who make a living selling the pigeons they have lured away now meet on Fridays at a derelict strip that locals call the "thieves' market", or in makeshift coffee houses.
Inside one windowless building in a poor neighbourhood of Damascus, men sit around tables drinking tea, comparing pigeon stories and sharing pigeon pictures on their mobile phones. At the back are floor-to-ceiling cages that a man enters occasionally to inspect the pigeons.
Business has been slow since the ban.
"I used to generate a good revenue from capturing other people's birds and reselling them. I started out with $2,000 and generated four or five times that amount," said a 24-year-old former fancier who withheld his name for fear that stigma might affect the computer business he now runs.
Strategies for luring pigeons away from their owner include training a female pigeon to entice males away from their flock. Trained flocks are usually all male because female pigeons do not return home. Pigeons are monogamous birds, but in "pigeon wars" a fancier can train a female to mate with any male.
"It's like pigeon prostitute. When the fancier wants to lure someone else's pigeons, he'll throw her in the air and she might bring the whole flock down," said Kociejowski.
One fancier had several to do the trick: "I had a team of 14 females to ruin others' flights. I called them my suicide squad."
As for Hassan's pigeons, their games are over, too. Every day after work and before sunset, he lets them out of their coop on his roof and sits down with a glass of tea to watch them.
"That one is calling for his mate," he said, pointing to a black Damascene, a naturally round pigeon, that stood still for several moments fluffing and ruffling his feathers.
"They have full lives, you know, just like we do."
30 May 2006 01:05:44 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Rasha Elass
DAMASCUS, May 30 (Reuters) - Hassan keeps about 200 pigeons on his roof, including a tall, elegant pair of Abbasi Yahudis with pearly-white fur covering their feet like boots.
However, he is banned from using his pigeons to play an unregulated and little-known game, one that has endured for centuries, because of bird flu fears.
"We used to see many. There were maybe a hundred flocks that flew on that hillside alone, engaging in the sport," said Hassan, who declined to give his full name, pointing to a neighbourhood on a Damascus hillside.
"But now we don't see them any more. Everyone is afraid the police will confiscate their birds."
About 10,000 domestic pigeons have been seized since neighbouring Turkey in January confirmed human deaths from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu, official figures show.
Another neighbour, Iraq, has also reported human deaths and birds have died from flu in Jordan and Israel.
Syria says it remains free of bird flu, but authorities have culled poultry near the Turkish border and banned pigeon sports, although the World Organisation for Animal Health says it is unclear if pigeons carry the virus.
The game, called "Kash Hamam" in Arabic, is one of strategy, requiring a poker-faced owner and well-trained pigeons.
"It's pigeon wars. Fanciers train their flock to lure away other people's pigeons," Marius Kociejowski, who is writing a book on the subject, told Reuters.
"When the original owner tries to reclaim his pigeon, the one who has lured it away denies he has it or offers to sell it back for a price."
A typical flock comprises 20 to 40 birds that circle over the fancier's roof.
JUST FANCY
While the game rarely attracts spectators, a sharp eye can spot it in southern Spain and Italy, the north African coast and beyond. There have even been sightings in New York.
In many Arab countries, as well as Turkey and Iran, Kash Hamam is a centuries-old tradition that has fallen in and out of favour. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Syria banned pigeons from the area near the Israeli border for fear that they might transport coded messages, a former security official said.
In Iraq, insurgents have used pigeons to mark the location of U.S. troops before launching an attack, according to news reports.
The men who practise this pastime -- women rarely do -- have also been saddled with a bad reputation.
"No one wants his daughter to marry a fancier. A fancier looks down into other people's courtyards to watch unveiled women. He lies about the birds he leads astray from other flocks," Kociejowski said.
Pigeon fanciers are subject to such social stigma that Syrian courts do not accept their testimony.
"If they are willing to lie just to add a pigeon to their flock, then they're not trustworthy and judges customarily will not take their testimony," said lawyer Razi Diab.
"THIEVES' MARKET"
Fanciers who make a living selling the pigeons they have lured away now meet on Fridays at a derelict strip that locals call the "thieves' market", or in makeshift coffee houses.
Inside one windowless building in a poor neighbourhood of Damascus, men sit around tables drinking tea, comparing pigeon stories and sharing pigeon pictures on their mobile phones. At the back are floor-to-ceiling cages that a man enters occasionally to inspect the pigeons.
Business has been slow since the ban.
"I used to generate a good revenue from capturing other people's birds and reselling them. I started out with $2,000 and generated four or five times that amount," said a 24-year-old former fancier who withheld his name for fear that stigma might affect the computer business he now runs.
Strategies for luring pigeons away from their owner include training a female pigeon to entice males away from their flock. Trained flocks are usually all male because female pigeons do not return home. Pigeons are monogamous birds, but in "pigeon wars" a fancier can train a female to mate with any male.
"It's like pigeon prostitute. When the fancier wants to lure someone else's pigeons, he'll throw her in the air and she might bring the whole flock down," said Kociejowski.
One fancier had several to do the trick: "I had a team of 14 females to ruin others' flights. I called them my suicide squad."
As for Hassan's pigeons, their games are over, too. Every day after work and before sunset, he lets them out of their coop on his roof and sits down with a glass of tea to watch them.
"That one is calling for his mate," he said, pointing to a black Damascene, a naturally round pigeon, that stood still for several moments fluffing and ruffling his feathers.
"They have full lives, you know, just like we do."
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