Baghdad, September 21, 2021 – A new plan to remove constraints and create more economic opportunities for women was launched today by the government of Iraq, with support from the World Bank Group. The Women’s Economic Empowerment Plan for 2021-2022 outlines the government’s priorities in line with its reform program. The plan follows extensive consultations with key stakeho
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At the beginning Sumer (a region of Mesopotamia) was the birthplace of writing, the wheel, agriculture, the arch, the plow, the saw, irrigation, beer, the spear, money, calendar and many other innovations, and is often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization. The Sumerians developed the earliest known writing system – a pictographic writing system known as cuneiform script,
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Rashad Salim’s efforts to discover and preserve knowledge of ancient boatbuilding crafts played a key role in the resurgence of interest in Iraq’s maritime heritage. Above, Salim with a pair of shasha reed bundle boats (Photo: © Rashad Salim). When he first glided through the Euphrates as a child in his grandfather’s “tarada,” a traditional Mesopotamian boat, J
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Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, at his home in the holy city of Najaf, receives Pope Francis on March 6, 2021. Photo: AFP/Ayatollah Sistani's Media Office By any historical measure, it was a game-changer: the first meeting since the 7th century between a Roman Catholic Pope and a Shiite spiritual leader regarded as a “source of emulation.” I
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Pope Francis with Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Photograph: Reuters Pope Francis has had a symbolic meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most senior clerics in Shia Islam, in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf. The historic meeting in Sistani’s home was months in the making, with every detail painstakingly discussed and negotiated b
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