This contribution poses questions on the issues affecting field research in the regions disputed between Kurds and Arabs in northern Iraq. After raising various limits inherent in the specific nature of this research, the author takes the reader through the research as it took place and suggests a self-reflective analysis starting with identifying the methodological ambushes and ethical difficulties created by such a field for the researcher. He describes the conditions of his stay, his contacts with informants and his observations in a shadowy, tense environment bearing the marks of authoritarian power. He pays special attention to the conditions of opportunities for qualitative interactions in light of the security issues that he had to face while preserving an ethic of practice aimed at giving a voice to those who have none.