BABYLON, Iraq — As Iraqi children witness the war plaguing their country, they are affected by the transformation of civilian life into a military camp full of war such as weapons, fighters and banners of armed factions. The militarization of society is not new for Iraqis. Saddam Hussein imposed military control on Iraqi communities in 1998. This time around, the aggressor is
Read MoreIraq's one too many holidays Given the many official and unofficial holidays in Iraq, the country seems to be almost on permanent vacation throughout the year. Schools find themselves unable to complete their curricula, while economists warn against a recession due to the excessive number of holidays. Iraq recognizes 150 official vacation days, which is equivalent to one-
Read MoreJune 20 was International Refugee Day, a fitting moment for the world to focus on the plight of the 60 million and rising number of displaced people. As the British-Somali poet Warsan Shire put it, “No one leaves home, unless home is the mouth of a shark.” But there are also millions who are unable to escape, lacking the means or fearful of bigger “sharks” further afield. Meanw
Read MorePsychologists in Iraq, a country long afflicted by violence, say they’ve never seen more terrible trauma than that caused by the Islamic State. These days, no one seems to have endured just one kind of life-jarring experience in the conflict areas of Iraq. The suffering is multilayered: trauma caused by having witnessed or being victims of Islamic State violence, being displac
Read MoreAbstract In an effort to situate Ali al-Wardi’s larger body of scholarship, this article places him within his Iraqi and international intellectual milieu, highlighting the role of his book Preachers of the Sultan for its grounding of his later works, while at the same time asserting the seriousness with which he took the scholar’s role as an activist to bring knowledge to the
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