Is this uncharted territory in the 26-year war between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish government?

On Thursday evening, leaders of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known by the acronym PKK, held a news conference near one of their bases in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq to announce a one-month extension to their cease-fire with Turkey. 

The original ceasefire began on Aug. 13 after nearly three months of heavy violence that left at least 100 Turkish soldiers dead. The decision to renew might be attributed to the rebels’ continued hope that Turkey will make positive steps towards peace, such as stopping air bombardments and releasing of political prisoners. 

But in the past Turkey has continued military operations, ignoring the PKK cease-fires.

A sultry Kurdish singer who models herself on the Colombian superstar Shakira is causing a sensation in her socially conservative homeland of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Dashni Murad, 23, wears figure-hugging bodices, skimpy skirts and plunging necklines as she writhes to the rhythm of songs fusing Kurdish and Western beats -- in the way that Shakira has drawn inspiration from her Middle Eastern heritage.

Mosque preachers have railed against Murad and some TV channels have refused to broadcast her clips because they consider her gyrating dances and revealing clothing to be an offense to Kurdish morals.

But Murad refuses to be deterred, and says she will press ahead with her mission to transform Kurdish culture.

“I want to change Kurdish style," she said in an interview in Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital. "I want the youth to see my dance. I want to present something distinctive, far from the half-dead old style.”