(Baghdad)
1 – IRAQ TODAY
Iraq today is a country in limbo, a puzzle of identities and open wounds struggling to heal. Walking through Baghdad, the air is a mixture of dust, heat, and a fragile optimism. At the armed checkpoints, which have become an everyday feature of the country, the destinies of a generation intersect: young people with cell phones in hand, dreaming of global connections, alongside rifle-toting militiamen, guardians of ancient faiths. The stench of open war no longer permeates the air, but rather that of slow and laborious reconstruction, where ambitious new skyscrapers rise a short distance from neighborhoods still scarred by the blows of conflict. Life, tenacious, thrives in crowded markets and along the banks of the Tigris, but it is a precarious normality, governed by internal divisions and corruption that erodes the foundations of the state. Contemporary Iraq is thus a construction site, not just of bricks and mortar, but of ideas of nationhood. It is a place where the traumatic memory of a recent past—the regime, the invasion, the chaos, the Caliphate—collides with a complex present and a future yet to be written, as the country laboriously seeks a new balance between its deep internal divisions and heavy regional influences.
(Duhok, Kurdistan Autonomous Region)
2 – THE CONFLICT BETWEEN FEDERAL IRAQ AND THE KURDS: A DIVIDED COUNTRY
The conflict between the Kurdish people and the central government in Baghdad is a constant in Iraqi history. It is not a simple ethnic dispute, but a political struggle for self-determination and territorial control, born from the denial of a national identity.
The first uprisings, led by Mustafa Barzani starting in the 1940s, laid the foundation for a nationalist movement. This led, in the 1960s, to the first large-scale armed conflict between the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga (“those who face death”). The peak of repression was reached under Saddam Hussein’s regime. On March 16, 1988, a campaign of extermination known as Anfal culminated with the chemical attack in Halabja, killing 5,000 civilians in a matter of hours.
A turning point came in 1991. After a bloodily crushed uprising, a mass exodus prompted the international community to establish a no-fly zone in northern Iraq, effectively protecting the region. In this protected space, a nascent Kurdish state began to take shape, reaching its formal peak with the constitutional recognition of autonomy in 2005.
However, tensions have never subsided. The crucial point remains the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. In 2014, the Peshmerga captured it, taking advantage of the chaos of the Islamic State (ISIS). In 2017, however, in response to a referendum on independence held by Kurdistan, the Iraqi army retook it by force.
Today, Iraqi Kurdistan is a consolidated regional player, but economically in crisis. The conflict with Baghdad has transformed: it is no longer a military struggle for survival, but a complex political, legal, and economic battle within the federal Iraqi state. Iraq is effectively a country divided in two, in a precarious balance struggling to find a stable solution.
(Lake Dukan)
3 – SADDAM HUSSEIN’S LAND RECLAMATIONS AND THE WATER CRISIS
In southern Iraq, a vast region of marshes and swamps known as Ahwar, or Mesopotamian Marshlands, is considered by many to be the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. For millennia, this area was home to a unique ecosystem and the homeland of the Marsh Arabs, who lived on floating islands built of reeds and wood, basing their survival and identity on this aquatic environment. After the defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, Shiite revolts erupted in the south, brutally repressed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Many rebels sought refuge in the marshes, inaccessible to the regular army. Saddam’s response was not only military, but ecological: destroying the environment that provided shelter and sustenance for the rebellion. The regime launched a systematic and scientific reclamation project, which was actually a desiccation effort. The flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers into the marshes was interrupted by a network of large dams and gigantic canals that diverted water directly into the Persian Gulf. In less than a decade, 90% of the marshes disappeared. An area the size of Lebanon was transformed into a wasteland of saline earth and dust, with dry reed fires darkening the sky. The unique biodiversity (including migratory birds, water buffalo, and endemic fish species) was wiped out. The ancient culture of the Marsh Arabs was annihilated. Over 200,000 people were forced to flee, becoming environmental refugees. Those who remained were left in a dying land, without a means of subsistence. The UN has called this operation an “ecocide.”
The disaster initiated by Saddam was compounded by a perfect storm of subsequent problems that have led Iraq to a profound water crisis today: the construction of gigantic dams (such as the Ilısu in Turkey) on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has drastically reduced the flow of water entering Iraq. Climate change has brought rising temperatures, extreme heat waves, and recurring droughts, accelerating evaporation and reducing rainfall. Corruption and political instability have led the country to neglect water infrastructure maintenance. The rivers have become dumping grounds for industrial and agricultural waste.
Although heroic efforts have been made since 2003 to re-flood the Ahwar area, which has partially recovered about 70% of its original size, the marshes are now dying for the second time, this time due to a lack of river water. The general water crisis is thus finishing the job that Saddam had started, once again threatening the survival of the Marsh Arabs and their ecosystem, as well as the entire country.
(Lalish, sacred site of the Yazidis)
4 – THE IRAQI PEOPLES
Iraq is a complex ethnic and religious mosaic. In addition to the main division between Arabs and Kurds, several minorities live within its territory, each with strong linguistic and cultural traits.
- Arabs: They are the majority ethno-linguistic group and constitute approximately 75% of the population (30 million). They are divided between Shiites (the majority) and Sunnis, a division that has profoundly shaped the country’s political history.
- Kurds: An ethnic group of Indo-European origin indigenous to Mesopotamia. Concentrated in the north of the country (the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan), they primarily speak Sorani and Kurmanji (Kurdish dialects). They number approximately 7 million.
- Yazidis: They are a religious minority, ethnically Kurdish but with their own completely distinct faith. Their religious system is based on the worship of Tawusî Melek, the Peacock Angel, and draws influence from Zoroastrian, Christian, and Islamic religions. They have historically been persecuted and are believed to have suffered more than 70 genocides, the last in 2014 at the hands of ISIS. There is no written documentation of previous genocides.
- Assyrians (or Chaldeans/Syriacs): An indigenous Christian Semitic people, descendants of the ancient Mesopotamians, they are the direct descendants of the Assyrian Empire. They speak various dialects of Aramaic. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 of them, mainly in the northern areas.
- Iraqi Turkmen: They descend from the migrations of Turkish populations during the Seljuk and Ottoman eras. They are the third largest ethnic group, with approximately 2 million people. They are concentrated between the areas of Tal Afar and Kirkuk, and are divided between Sunnis and Shiites.
- Shabak: A distinct ethno-religious group that historically inhabits the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq. Considered to be of Kurdish origin due to the similarity of their language to Sorani, they have a highly complex religion of their own, blending Shia Islam, Sufism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. Persecuted and massacred by ISIS in 2014, fewer than 200,000 are estimated to remain.
- Mandaeans: The world’s last surviving Gnostic community. Their religion, Mandaeism, is a monotheistic, baptismal, and pre-Christian religion that traces its origins directly to the Gnostic currents of late-ancient Mesopotamia. Historically targeted as “infidels,” they have been victims of kidnappings, extortion, and murder since 2003. Today, they are on the brink of extinction; it appears only a few thousand remain.
- Kawliya: They are the Romani community of Iraq, speaking Domari (related to the European Romani and the Lomari of the Dom of the Middle East). Originally from present-day India and Pakistan, they now live on the outskirts of large cities. Traditionally considered to be at the lowest rung of the Iraqi social ladder, they are considered najis (impure) by some extremist groups and are subject to deeply rooted hostility and prejudice. Due to their marginalization, nomadic nature, and lack of official recognition, it is almost impossible to estimate their number.
(Mosul)
5 – MOSUL AND THE WAR AGAINST THE ISLAMIC STATE
The nightmare that Iraq and the city of Mosul experienced between 2014 and 2017 had been smoldering, like embers under the sand, for many years. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the new Iraqi government, dominated by Shiites, initiated a policy of marginalization toward the Sunni component. It progressively marginalized the former Sunni elite and dismissed tens of thousands of soldiers, creating a vast reserve of discontented, unemployed, and resentful men. In this climate, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group was born and strengthened, later renaming itself the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), waiting for the right moment to strike. A decisive turning point came with the civil war in Syria in 2011, where the ISI found fertile ground for recruitment and training, eventually transforming into ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The long-awaited moment arrived in 2014: in January, Fallujah, just 50 km from Baghdad, was conquered. In June, it was the turn of Mosul, Iraq’s second city. Here, the Islamic State militants encountered very little resistance. The Sunni population, in fact, had become hostile to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, accused of discrimination and repression. The corrupt and demotivated Iraqi army was seen as an occupying force and, upon the arrival of the Black Soldiers, fled. Mosul was thus conquered in just 48 hours. From the pulpit of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, the same one from which Sultan Saladin had called for jihad in the 12th century, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the birth of the Caliphate on June 29, 2014, electing Mosul as its capital. For nearly three years, the city lived in terror. ISIS imposed its brutal interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia), standardizing public punishments such as floggings, amputations, and beheadings. The streets were patrolled by “committees for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice.” Shiite churches and mosques were destroyed, libraries burned, and ancient museum artifacts shattered. The Yazidi, Christian, and Shabak minorities were exterminated, enslaved, or forced to flee. The Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga, and international forces participated in the liberation of the city, but it took about ten months of fighting to fully retake it. The heaviest price was paid on the western side, where the Old City is located, 80% razed to the ground by firefights, bombings, and car bombs.
Today, Mosul is trying to rise again. Life has resumed amidst construction sites and devastated neighborhoods. Gutted buildings are being reborn, with shops on the ground floor. Cranes have replaced tanks. The road, however, is still long and arduous. Clearing the rubble and thousands of unexploded ordnance is a herculean task. Corruption, ethnic tensions, and political instability are slowing reconstruction, and for many residents, returning remains a difficult goal.
(Rashakall. Ismail lost his legs during the conflict. Since then, he has fathered six children and run a farm)
6 – THE CONFLICT WITH IRAN IN THE 1980s
Shortly before the Gulf War, Iraq found itself immersed in one of the bloodiest conflicts since World War II. On one side was Saddam Hussein, the secular dictator and head of the Baath Party, who dreamed of becoming the undisputed leader of the Arab world. On the other, Ayatollah Khomeini, in power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, was inciting the Shiite masses to overthrow the “evil regimes,” directly threatening Saddam’s power in Iraq.
The pretext was a border dispute over the Shatt al-Arab, the vital river that marks the entrance to the Persian Gulf, but the stakes were regional dominance. Believing he could exploit the post-revolutionary confusion in Iran, Saddam launched a surprise invasion in September 1980. The Iraqi army initially advanced without great difficulty, but the attack soon stalled. Iran did not collapse. On the contrary, it responded with unexpected fury, launching counteroffensives driven by revolutionary fervor and waves of young volunteers, sent to clear minefields with their own bodies.
The war thus turned into a horrendous trench stalemate, a senseless massacre reminiscent of the First World War. For eight long years, the front became a meat grinder. Iraq, supported by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Sunni Arab countries, made massive and unscrupulous use of chemical weapons against enemy trenches. Iran responded with large-scale frontal attacks, paying a heavy price in human lives. The conflict spread to affect capitals in the “War of the Cities” and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, threatening the global economy.
When a ceasefire ended hostilities in 1988, the toll was apocalyptic. The death toll exceeded one million. The once-prosperous economies of both countries were devastated. There were no victors or territorial changes: they simply returned to square one, but with societies burned by hatred. For Iraq, this pointless war left a legacy of monstrous debt and an over-armed army, two factors that pushed Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait just two years later, in 1990, triggering the subsequent crisis. Today, relations between the two countries are undoubtedly more stable, fostered by the presence of a Shiite-majority government in Baghdad. However, numerous frictions remain, in an Iraq forced to balance its alliance with Iran and its relations with the United States.
(Najaf)
7 – SHI’ITE HOLY CITIES AND PILGRIMAGES
Najaf and Karbala, located in south-central Iraq, are two of the holiest cities for Shi’ite Muslims. Their sacredness is deeply linked to the figures of Ali ibn Abī Talib, his son al-Husayn, and their companions. These cities are not only centers of pilgrimage, but also of study, political power, and collective identity for over 200 million Shi’ites worldwide.
The story dates back to 680 AD, when al-Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, clashed with the army of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid in Karbala. He was killed along with his loyal followers in a massacre that for Shi’ites represents the eternal symbol of the fight against injustice. His father, Ali, the first Imam of the Shiites, rests in Najaf. His tomb became the intellectual beacon of Shiism, giving rise to the Hawza, the most prestigious theological university. Surrounding it lies the vast Wadi al-Salam (Valley of Peace), the largest cemetery in the world. It is estimated that approximately 6 million faithful are buried there, resting eternally beside their Imam.
The greatest testing point for these shrines came under the regime of Saddam Hussein, who brutally repressed Shiite rituals, seeing them as a threat to his power. But faith did not die. The long-awaited moment of rebirth arrived with the dictator’s fall in 2003. Since then, pilgrims have once again flocked in their millions to the two holy cities. The culmination is the Arba’in, the pilgrimage to Karbala held 40 days after the anniversary of al-Hussein’s martyrdom, an event that brings together up to 20 million people in a march of faith that is the largest annual religious gathering in the world.
Today, the golden domes of the shrines of Karbala and Najaf shine brighter than ever. Life revolves around the mausoleums, in a constant coming and going of faithful who pray, weep, and invoke their Imams. Local economies flourish thanks to the pilgrims, while theology students flock to Najaf’s schools. The present, however, is not without shadows. Political instability, the threat of terrorism, and sectarian tensions remain real dangers. Yet, despite everything, for millions of Shiites, the journey to these cities is not an option, but a heartfelt duty, a homecoming that no threat can ever deny.
(Sumel)
8 – THE OIL STORM
In Iraq, oil is both a curse and a blessing, the beating heart of an economy that depends on it for over 90% of its revenue, but also the common thread of decades of instability and conflict. Today, crude oil exports are the sole lifeblood of a state budget struggling to pay salaries, rebuild destroyed infrastructure, and provide basic services to an exhausted population. This total dependence makes the country extremely vulnerable to global price fluctuations, while simultaneously inhibiting the development of every other economic sector, in a perverse trap that economists call “the resource curse.”
To understand this crippling dependence, we need to look back to the past, to the Gulf Wars that were both the daughter and stepmother of oil. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, motivated by oil debts and accusations of illegitimate extraction, sparked a conflict that defined Iraq as a rogue state. Oil financed Saddam Hussein’s regime and was, at the same time, the primary geopolitical rationale for the international response: no power could allow such an unstable actor to control such a vast portion of global reserves. The 2003 war, although justified on other grounds, was not unrelated to this logic, opening the doors to international companies and sparking a fierce struggle for control of the country’s underground wealth.
And it is precisely this struggle that shapes the present and undermines the country’s already precarious health, embodied in the difficult and often contentious balance with the Kurdistan Region (KRG). The crucial, unresolved issue is who has the authority to manage and sell crude oil. The central government in Baghdad, based on an interpretation of the Constitution, claims sole control over all exports. The KRG, building on its de facto autonomy, has built an independent pipeline to Turkey, selling oil independently in what Baghdad calls illegal smuggling. The stakes are not only legal, but strategic: control of the rich and symbolic city of Kirkuk, a disputed oil hub, brought the two sides to the brink of armed conflict in 2017.
Returning to the present, Iraq remains trapped in a paradox. The oil that should unite and rebuild the nation is instead the main factor of division, fueling chronic instability between Baghdad and Erbil that discourages investment and keeps the country in a state of perpetual fragility.
(Duhok)
9 – THE LABYRINTH OF POWER: THE POLITICAL SYSTEM AND IRAQ’S FUTURE AFTER ISIS
After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the defeat of the Islamic State, Iraq failed to build a solid and unifying system of government, finding itself instead trapped in a political labyrinth whose solution is Muhasasa, a system of power-sharing based on ethnic and religious affiliation. This arrangement, created to avoid further conflict, rigidly assigns the highest positions: the Prime Minister is a Shiite, the President of the Republic a Kurd, and the Speaker of Parliament a Sunni. While it has calmed immediate tensions, it has also institutionalized sectarian divisions, transforming politics into a struggle between factions for control of resources and state apparatus, fueling endemic corruption that paralyzes public services and development. In this vacuum, the Hashd al-Shaabi militias, formed to fight ISIS and now key political and economic players, often close to Iran, have gained immense power. Tehran’s influence, which influences Iraqi politics through allied parties and militias, is a key issue, inherited from the bloody war of the 1980s and which today defines Baghdad’s regional alliances. This oppressive and disappointing system has been opposed, especially since 2019, by a strong, cross-party youth protest movement, the Tishreen, which has loudly called for the end of the Muhasasa, a secular government, and an end to foreign interference. These protests have been violently repressed. Iraq’s future, therefore, hinges entirely on its ability to extricate itself from this labyrinth: it will have to find a way to overcome sectarian divisions, integrate militias into a sovereign state, respond to the legitimate demands of a youth weary of war and corruption, and carve out an independent role in the delicate balance between Iran and Saudi Arabia, with which it is currently seeking a difficult reconciliation. Without a profound reform of its political system, the country will struggle to find lasting peace and stability.
(Najaf)
10 – DREAMS OF ESCAPE AND IMMIGRATION: ONE OF THE WEAKEST PASSPORTS IN THE WORLD
“Passport problem” is a frequently used expression when discussing the dream of traveling abroad. Or worse, when everyday life becomes unbearable. Iraq remains third-to-last in the Henley Passport Index, the global ranking that measures citizens’ travel freedom based on their passport. Only Syria and Afghanistan fare worse. The primary causes of this weakness lie in political instability and deficiencies in internal security. Foreign governments perceive Iraq as an unstable nation, characterized by a significant presence of armed groups and a high likelihood of escalating conflict. This perception translates into severe restrictions, dictated by fears of mass irregular immigration or infiltration related to security threats. Added to this is the endemic corruption plaguing the country: many states have serious doubts about the integrity of passport applicants’ vetting processes. They fear that the lack of rigorous checks could allow criminals or terrorists to obtain legitimate documents.
The picture is completed by complicated diplomatic relations with other governments and the need for destination countries to control migration flows. Given that Iraq has seen millions of citizens flee war and persecution in the past, destination countries maintain visa requirements precisely to discourage new waves of asylum seekers.
Although Iraq is not currently experiencing a large-scale open conflict and the country enjoys relative security, living conditions for many people remain profoundly precarious. Tens of thousands of individuals have been unable to return to their homes since the war against ISIS and still live in refugee camps. In other cases, the problems are economic: especially in the Kurdistan regions, salaries are often delayed two or three months, or even denied altogether.
It is therefore a recurring feeling, especially among young people, to dream of peace, but to imagine it elsewhere: in a place that can guarantee not only serenity, but also a dignified life and solid prospects for the future. The Iraqi passport, so weak, thus becomes not only a symbol of restriction, but the wall that separates one from that possibility.