A year before Iraq’s Personal Status Law was enacted, Naziha al-Dulaimi called for equality in marriage, divorce, property ownership, and children’s rights. We revisit her 1958 article, alongside Maria Talal, to explore what these demands mean today as sectarian legal provisions return to govern Iraqi…
What did going to the cinema mean in twentieth-century Iraq? It could mean chasing film flyers through the streets, saving for a 40-fils ticket, dressing in the latest fashion, memorising a song heard on screen, or listening from a rooftop as music drifted out of…
A musical inheritance can be familiar long before it becomes a language of one’s own. Raised in a musical household, violinist Layth Sidiq found in maqam an education that would reshape his…
It is almost seven years since the Tishreen uprising. Recent protests by graduates in Baghdad recall some of the grievances that drove it. These graduate protests are reminiscent of the beginnings of Tishreen itself.…
Five people of different ages and backgrounds take us through their working days in Jummar’s newsroom. Writing, designing and publishing, and answering their families’ question, ‘What do you do?’ For older relatives,…
Across Canada, the Gulf and hip-hop, Yassin al-Salman knew what it meant to be a visitor. Music gave him somewhere to speak, carrying Iraq into rooms where its people were too often…
A musical inheritance can be familiar long before it becomes a language of one’s own. Raised in a musical household, violinist Layth Sidiq found in maqam an education that would reshape his…
It is almost seven years since the Tishreen uprising. Recent protests by graduates in Baghdad recall some of the grievances that drove it. These graduate protests are reminiscent of the beginnings of Tishreen itself.…
Five people of different ages and backgrounds take us through their working days in Jummar’s newsroom. Writing, designing and publishing, and answering their families’ question, ‘What do you do?’ For older relatives,…
Across Canada, the Gulf and hip-hop, Yassin al-Salman knew what it meant to be a visitor. Music gave him somewhere to speak, carrying Iraq into rooms where its people were too often…
One woman went into labour while harvesting crops. Another gave birth on a tractor, halfway through a three-hour journey to hospital. A third nearly died after an unlicensed midwife injected her three times to induce labour. Across rural Iraq, women face pregnancy and childbirth amid gruelling work, distant hospitals and fears of al-tabi‘a, a female jinn blamed in folklore for infertility, miscarriage and harm to newborns.
Ahmed spent more than four and a half years in unlawful detention, where he was subjected to torture in Iraq. Fifteen years after his release, he still plans his commute around the buildings and cars that could take him back. A story about what outlives torture and detention, and what accountability still owes the people left to carry its burden
After the euphoria of World Cup qualification has faded, some difficult questions began to surface, reflecting on the flawed logic that Iraqi football keeps rehashing: who really gets to represent the national team, and why the debate keeps pitting local players against those raised abroad.
Through one cat’s journey between veterinary clinics in Iraq, this article exposes a troubled sector marked by weak oversight, neglectful clinics and a lack of accountability. A system meant to protect animals is instead compounding their suffering.
Why are people more afraid of seeking treatment for anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions than of dealing with the illness itself? How does psychological suffering become a source of stigma rather than care? What happens when psychiatrists are absent, but faith healers are everywhere? This is the reality of mental healthcare in Iraq’s southern governorate of Al-Muthanna, where many would rather die by suicide than face the social stigma attached to mental illness.
One woman went into labour while harvesting crops. Another gave birth on a tractor, halfway through a three-hour journey to…
One woman went into labour while harvesting crops. Another gave birth on a tractor, halfway through a three-hour journey to hospital. A third nearly died after an unlicensed midwife injected her three times to induce labour. Across rural Iraq, women face pregnancy and childbirth amid gruelling work, distant hospitals and…
Ahmed spent more than four and a half years in unlawful detention, where he was subjected to torture in Iraq.…
Ahmed spent more than four and a half years in unlawful detention, where he was subjected to torture in Iraq. Fifteen years after his release, he still plans his commute around the buildings and cars that could take him back. A story about what outlives torture and detention, and what…
After the euphoria of World Cup qualification has faded, some difficult questions began to surface, reflecting on the flawed logic…
After the euphoria of World Cup qualification has faded, some difficult questions began to surface, reflecting on the flawed logic that Iraqi football keeps rehashing: who really gets to represent the national team, and why the debate keeps pitting local players against those raised abroad.
Through one cat’s journey between veterinary clinics in Iraq, this article exposes a troubled sector marked by weak oversight, neglectful…
Through one cat’s journey between veterinary clinics in Iraq, this article exposes a troubled sector marked by weak oversight, neglectful clinics and a lack of accountability. A system meant to protect animals is instead compounding their suffering.
Why are people more afraid of seeking treatment for anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions than of dealing with…
Why are people more afraid of seeking treatment for anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions than of dealing with the illness itself? How does psychological suffering become a source of stigma rather than care? What happens when psychiatrists are absent, but faith healers are everywhere? This is the reality…
Across Anbar, women and children left behind by enforced disappearance face poverty, isolation and years of political promises that have failed to reveal the fate of those they love.
In this article, the author examines how Iraq’s Personal Status Code has weakened legal safeguards for women and girls, particularly by facilitating child marriage and creating a parallel religious legal regime. Drawing on...
