A former child refugee who was hailed as the 'Shakira of Kurdistan' has told of the price of her success.
Born on the 1st of January, 1986, in the city of Sulaimaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Dashni Morad witnessed the horrors of war from the age of two when her grandparents' village was gassed under the orders of Saddam Hussein's regime, killing 5,000, fleeing the country after her father travelled to Europe to seek refuge.
Thousands of people were killed and many others injured in
Kurdish areas of Iraq due to chemical attacks conducted under Hussein's regime.
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Kurdistan is regularly attributed to be four key areas: southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Syria (western Kurdistan), northern Iraq (southern Kurdistan) and northwestern (eastern Kurdistan).
After several attempts to find asylum in Europe, her father was eventually helped by the Dutch government to settle in Holland where Dashni and her family joined him.
She went to school there and was taught to speak Dutch. After leaving school she worked in the entertainment industry, interning at a Kurdish TV station where she hosted the show Without Borders.
It aired in Iraqi Kurdistan and she became an overnight hit in her home country, but it wasn't until she moved back in 2007 at the age of 21 that she realised the impact of her fame.
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Dashni had made a music album with a producer she befriended in Holland and along with it a video where she was "dancing in sexy dresses." When she returned to her home country 10 years ago it caused fury among Muslim law enforcers.
Although Dashni was Kurdish, the strict Muslim community was furious and warned people to boycott her music, with members of her family even turning against her.
Writing for The Mirror, she described being ordered to leave Iraq by mullahs who delivered sermons about her, saying she "should be hanged with a rope of fire."
At a performance at the Asia Cup, prominent public figures and politicians left their tables as an act of protest against her music and progressive dance moves.
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However, she failed to let the threats and protests deter her. Things began to turn around after she did an interview that went around the globe and after that a huge station in Lebanon played her song.
From there she reached number one in Lebanon, in Kurdistan and back in Holland, and has established a charity called Green Kids, opening libraries for refugee children with books donated by Dutch children.
For more information and to donate, go to Greenkids.org.uk and Dashnimorad.com