On March 10, 2025, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University hosted a presentation by Dr. Aram Ghalali, an Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School, titled “Science from the Lab Bench and Beyond: Identifying Genotoxic Compounds Persistent in the Soil of Halabja from the 1988 Genocide Campaign.” The event was attended by numerous researchers, graduate students, and the former President of Iraq, Barham Salih.

In the opening remarks, Dr. Ghalali provided a brief history of the Halabja chemical weapons attack, highlighting the tragedy faced by millions of Kurds during the Anfal Campaign carried out by the Iraqi Ba’ath regime across the Kurdistan Region. On March 16, 1988, the former Iraqi regime unleashed an unspeakable atrocity upon the city of Halabja by bombarding the civilian population with chemical weapons in defiance of international law. Within minutes, the Iraqi military had massacred more than 5,000 men, women, and children, injuring over 10,000 others.

“I was very happy to present a project today that I’ve been working on for 11 years,” Dr. Ghalali stated. He elaborated on his research, which analyzes the traces of chemical weapons in the environment. “Our findings indicate that there are still remnants of these substances present in Halabja, and we have observed the types of damage they induce. We began by conducting cell culture studies in the lab and are also examining local communities to determine if they are suffering from the damage caused by these substances,” he noted.

Dr. Galali believes this research is crucial, and hopes it will contribute to a scientific understanding of the global impact of the attack and put Halabja on the scientific map.

Last July, Kurdistan Chronicle interviewed Dr. Ghalali, who was honored in Marquis Who’s Who as one of 2024’s Top Educators and Top Scientists for his “dedication, achievements, and leadership in surgical instruction.”

Read more; Acclaimed Harvard Oncologist and Defender of Kurdish Resilience

Dalal Hassane, a junior at Harvard College who is pursuing a concentration in History and Literature with a secondary focus in Social Anthropology – and whose mother is a survivor of the Halabja massacre – also helped organize the event. “I was humbled to attend this event and learn so much about the Halabja massacre in an academic setting,” she remarked.

Since the Halabja attack, there have been multiple efforts to prosecute those who organized and carried out the massacre. In 2005, Saddam Hussein was tried and executed for crimes against humanity, but he was not specifically charged for his involvement in the Halabja attack. Many survivors and activists believe that true justice has yet to be achieved. The deployment of chemical weapons in Halabja constituted a blatant violation of international law, and many feel that those responsible should have faced consequences from both the international community and the Iraqi government. Dr. Ghalali’s forthcoming research indicates that the traces of those chemicals are still present in the environment and might have adverse effects on human health.