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‘Baghdad on fire’: Third Spaces, trauma & triumph from Tahrir

Baghdad on Fire is a film narrating stories from the Tishreen Revolution, the biggest political and social event in the modern history of Iraq, through the eyes of Tiba and her fellow activists.

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Diaries 

​​​We saw Saddam’s face on the Moon ​​ 

April 28th was an overcast day. Our BBC convoy drove for hours across the border from Jordan. As we entered Baghdad we could smell smoke. Many buildings were set on fire. Strangely, the city didn’t feel chaotic. It was in shock. I hired a local fixer, Muhammed, and for the next six weeks we would drive together around Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Falluja, talking to people and collecting stories.

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Law No. 111 in Iraq: Speaking up is a crime! 

Since 2003, the authorities began to strengthen their legislative arsenal with laws that protect their survival in a new form designed by the American occupation, which replaced the one-person and one-party rule with the hierarchical representation of sects and nationalism. There are Shiite, Sunnis, Kurds and other minorities represented by political blocs with leaders sharing power and resources by controlling the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities and protecting their power by exploiting and monopolising them.

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Water, oil and Iraq’s climate future

The same political and social upheavals that make the climate crisis so pressing have also led to the neglect of climate research in favor of what are perceived as more immediate threats, despite the interconnectedness of these predicaments. Indeed, rather than separate issues, the state of the Iraqi government and its economic and geopolitical entanglements are the main drivers of Iraq’s climate vulnerability today, as exemplified by its two most important resources: water and oil.
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Perpetual protest and the failure of the post-2003 Iraqi State 

Since 2019, protest culture has become ubiquitous in Iraq, especially in Baghdad and the other Shia-majority areas of the country that were the site of the Tishreen protests. Demonstrations are regularly organized for a variety of reasons. Some seek to keep the spirit of 2019 alive. Others are for government jobs. Some protests are responses to specific political or economic issues. Others are shows of force organized by political elites. The last in particular has become more common since 2019, with the political classes appropriating protest culture in order to blunt the effect of anti-systemic protest activism and as a tactic in intra-elite competition.

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Home confinement in Iraq… Women imprisoned by society’s ignorance  

How did families turn, with time, into gaolers, working for free for the establishment at the expense of their daughters’ happiness? Are we now completely indifferent towards them and unable to speak out or disobey society’s outdated traditions? Have we become so alien to them that we are capable of throwing our own flesh and blood underground in horrific, brutal sacrificial rituals only to please people and get their approval?

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Middle Eastern dance: Local Orientalism or Folk Art? 

The song “Tukoh Taka”, by a trio comprising of American rapper Nicki Minaj, Colombian artist Malumu, and Lebanese artist Myriam Fares, launched the FIFA World Cup fan festival in Qatar, sparking widespread controversy. Opinions and responses varied about the song, which FIFA intended as a cultural mix to reflect the “internationalisation of the event” by combining three international languages.

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Where do we go? Why have restaurants become the main source of entertainment for Iraqis?

How did food shift from being a means of survival to being an essential leisure activity in our society? Why did we make this decision? How are there so many restaurants everywhere? What impact does food leave on our bodies and our lives? Why are there no other means of entertainment, meaning restaurants must compete against each other, luring and incentivising customers to come inside?

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Your Mobile Phone is Your Weapon: Iraqi Women against Harassment

A woman does not need clichés to remind her that she is the mother, the sister, the wife, and the lover while she is threatened, harassed and abused everywhere. She needs to know that abuses are not her fault or her guilt. They are the fault of the perpetrators.

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Diaries 

The State of Beads: A life run by Beads and Gemstones 

The State of Beads. This state is made out of myths, legends, and beads. There are no policies, no plans, no actions. Everything that happens is a kind of innovation, a creativity, and a breach of reality presented by unseen forces