Iraqi Culture & Society

A sculpture by Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, inspired by a story in “One Thousand and One Nights,” in a park in Baghdad. CreditSabah Arar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, the Iraqi sculptor who created many of Baghdad’s most famous landmarks and who led the effort to recover works of art looted from the National Museum of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Huss

Download PDF Hikmat was born in Baghdad’s Kadumiya neighborhood and graduated from the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad back in 1953, before moving to Rome to complete his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1957. He is a true cultural and artistic icon who not only spearheaded the recovery of art looted from the National Museum of Iraq after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but al

An open letter to Pope Francis, Sovereign of the Vatican City. Your Holiness, In the aftermath of the atrocities in Paris and Brussels, and the daily outrages against humanity in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, it is easy to forget the religious tolerance is under siege from a tiny minority of extremists. But their ultra-violent methods aim to provoke social segregation and retri

  When the US invaded Iraq in 2003 it subsequently disbanded the country’s army, dismantled its security infrastructure and instituted an extensive set of occupation policies, all apparently geared at making it the main political, security and economic actor in the country. The consequences of those early policies and actions have radically transformed Iraq over the p

SUMMARY: Although the tomb of Jewish Prophet Ezra was turned into an Islamic landmark over the years following the Jewish exodus in the 1950s, clerics there say they are preserving the Jewish character of the shrine. UZAIR, Iraq — Jews reportedly built the tomb of the Prophet Ezra in Iraq in the fifth century, and the site has undergone many changes since. The tomb is in the to