If you're a Kurd in Iraqi Kurdistan, you may be Driving an Obama, Eyebrow, or Monica

When drivers here in Iraqi Kurdistan go car shopping, they face a tough choice: whether to get a hardy vehicle for rough roads or a sleek sedan for the smooth main routes.

It can come down to a Wanawsha versus an Obama.

“That’s a Wanawsha,” said Birwa Kamal, a 20-year-old car salesman, pointing to a Toyota Land Cruiser on his lot.

Foreign cars line a lot on the edge of Erbil, where locals
call vehicles by nicknames like Wanawsha and Obama.
Ben Kesling/The Wall Street Journal

Foreign cars have flooded into Iraq’s Kurdish north since Saddam Hussein ’s fall in 2003, thanks to free trade and economic gains. But the Kurds have trouble pronouncing some of the marques.

So they use nicknames that roll more easily off the local tongue. Wanawsha is the screen name of a famous Kurdish actress and singer who is generally thought classy, like the sometimes-swanky Toyota SUV.

“People don’t know what a Land Cruiser is,” Mr. Kamal said, “if you don’t use the nickname.”

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