Reports

They took my share. How women’s inheritance rights are taken by law, religion, and tradition 

Majida unknowingly forfeited her inheritance. Umnia was accused of being secretly married so they could claim her share. Ikhlas was threatened with solitude unless she relinquished her inheritance. This is the story of women who are rightful heirs by law and religion yet deprived by tradition.

Reports

Harhamoush Marmamoush: Confused souls searching in the midst of talismans and secret codes 

Dawood entered a man’s kitchen in Zakho hoping for a cure. He came out covered in burns. His suffering did not end there. This is a tale of sorcery, talismans, sorcerers, and those searching for miracles to fulfil their needs.

Stories

Girls’ Diaries of Abuse in an Iraqi High School 

I am not in a place to judge whether the school’s rules and regulations are valid, but the policy they consistently use, relies heavily on sexualizing and slut-shaming minors, putting them at more risk of domestic violence. This culture creates a space where abuse can occur.

Reports

Iraq’s deer threatened by hunger: Who will save the gazelles of Ali Al-Gharbi? 

The Iraqi authorities are procrastinating in providing half a kilogram of barley for al-reem, Iraq’s Arabian sand gazelles. The Iraqi natural reserves are not regulated by law and lack financial allocations and forage for their animals.

Stories

Second-floor voting: Iraqis that can’t reach ballot boxes 

We interviewed 12 organisations concerned with the affairs of disabled people in Iraq and eight people with mobility and visual disabilities who were unable to participate in the 2021 elections. They unanimously agreed that the government had failed to facilitate their participation in voting over the past two decades. Will this be repeated in local elections?

For days before the parliamentary elections on October 10, 2021, Mohammed Al-Ajeeli hoped to participate and vote for the candidate he deemed worthy.

Stories

Vision Beyond the Eye: On Blindness and Sight in Theatre and Football

Darkness has become their world. It is an experience they don’t want anyone to have. Yet, they learn from it. It inspires them. Details are not merely daily habits or fleeting actions in that world. They are like big achievements— indeed they are big achievement. About blindness, its world, and its community in Iraq. 

Reports

Tower 716: How did a residential area become a cancer hotspot?  

An investigation into the fates of 20 cancer patients in Neighbourhood 201 in Baqubah, and the geographical scope of their cases which cover the area of Tower 716, operated by the telecommunications company Asiacell. Do mobile towers cause cancer? Why are people dying in this place? A residential area evacuated by a tower which is splitting families apart.

Reports

Breathing life into a dead language: what remains of colloquial Mandaic in Iraq 

In the Iraqi dialect, when someone says, “I went home”, tabeet al-bayt, or “I entered the house,” dasheet al-bayt, half of what they are saying is in the Mandaean language. When a folk poet recites a poem about his mother’s sheela, it is taken from sheyala, which is the head covering of a Mandaean woman. The same applies to a singer who begins with “Woe, Woe”. Breathing life into a dead language: what remains of Mandaean dialect in Iraq

Reports

The Children of mothers incarcerated in Iraqi prisons: No records, no education, no life 

Sajjad, Muammal, Zahra, and Ruqayya have had no formal schooling. Nor have they been issued with appropriate identification papers. They are the victims of circumstances of bad luck which placed their mothers into prison.

Stories

“Your​​ son takes after his dad”. How does our skin colour transform from being an identity marker into a tool used for bullying? 

I was ten years old when I first heard a girl innocently say that my skin colour wasn’t beautiful, or in her words: ugly. She went on to ask me if I showered every day because my skin appeared dark to her. At that time, I didn’t understand what it meant to be a white girl, a brown girl, or “Black and ashy.” How does our skin colour transform from being an identity marker into a tool for bullying?