The Kurdish army would frequently visit her village and Akyol has described the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as being "part of my environment from a very early age".

Akyol found the program at the University of Montreal too theoretical for her, so she chose to transfer to the L'Université du Québec à Montréal.

[5] Akyol produced her short film Under Two Skies as part of her baccalaureate during the senior year of her bachelor's degree.

[9] To shoot the film Akyol went deep into the hills of Kurdistan Region of Iraq, during which time she stayed close and live with a group of female soldiers.

All of the photographs were shot during the shooting of the film Gulîstan, Land of Roses and the exhibition, which was held for three months, took place at Espace Mile End.