Investigative Reports
Oil fields and war remnants raise cancer rates in Basra
Dawai Naji (45 years old) from Basra, southern Iraq, lives in a whirlwind of anxiety about his mother, who is suffering from leukemia and has been hospitalized for weeks at Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital. He fears she might join his younger sister and nephew, who both died of cancer in 2014. He believes that emissions from oil fields are the cause: “A gas flare from an oil extraction facility is only 1000 meters away from our home in the paper factory area in the Dhi Qar region north of Basra, and because of it, the residents are vulnerable to various types…
Spread the “drugs” in the Kurdistan Region… the danger of
(A.S.), a 19-year-old young man from Duhok, did not complete his middle school education. At a young age, he was drawn into the world of drugs, influenced by friends he encountered during a time when his parents were unaware of his changing path, despite their persistent but unsuccessful efforts to steer him back toward his studies. Reflecting on this chapter of his life, he gestures toward his arms, adorned with tattoos, and continues: "My street friends led me into the trap of drugs. They exploited my curiosity and recklessness, encouraging me to try them. I experimented with various substances—crystal, hashish,…
Emigration Depletes the Christian Presence in Iraq: Security, Economy, and
Ihab, 37, a Christian displaced person in Dohuk, didn’t need much time to realize the reality awaiting him when he returned to his hometown of Tel esqof in the Nineveh Plain in the summer of 2017, after it was liberated from ISIS. His house, which he had completed building just two years before his displacement in 2014, had been reduced to rubble. His town was surrounded by destruction, lacking infrastructure, job opportunities, and a capable administration to restore life to the area. While the country was mired in political conflicts, security challenges, corruption, and poor governance, Ihab found himself with…
“Alum and salt”… the way drug dealers get out of
Ibtihal Salem, a 22-year-old woman incarcerated in the Central Women’s Prison in Baghdad, openly acknowledges her 12 arrests for drug trafficking. She claims that after each detention, she managed to persuade the security forces to release her, with only her drugs being seized, while she paid bribes to secure her…
Cities sinking in pollutants… Water pollution chases the southern Iraqi
On the morning of February 16, 2022, Arabic teacher Ali Kazem experienced a sudden stomach ache while lecturing his students at school. Continuous pain, vomiting, and diarrhea prompted his colleagues to taking him to a hospital in the Soq Al-Shuyukh, south of Nasiriya, the center of Dhi Qar Governorate (360…
The masculinity of society prevents girls from proving their existence.
Every morning, Arouba, from the agricultural area of Swaib west of Baghdad, begins by milking her two cows, filling a few two-liter plastic containers with their milk, and then sending them with her little brother and a cousin to sell in the nearby Al-Rabi’a market. It’s a routine she has…
Pollution and health damage.. Iraqis compensate for the state’s deficit
Mohammed Hussein (54 years old) was forced to sell his house located in the Al-Ra’isah neighborhood east of the capital, Baghdad, in the summer of 2023, due to the noise and smoke from the diesel generator next to the wall his house, which collapsed due to the vibrations resulting from…
A Long History of Deprivation: Iraqi Women Denied Their Inheritance
Khadija Ahmed (79 years old) is the last surviving member of her wealthy family, which consisted of her parents and six siblings, three of whom were male. However, she did not receive any of the movable or immovable assets from her father’s estate, which was based on vast lands and…
Concrete blocks extend to the mountains of Sulaymaniyah and threaten
“They are turning green spaces into concrete cubes!” says Sara Karim (34 years old) as she points to an area in the Sarjnar resort (5 km west of Sulaymaniyah) that used to be a “public park” that she used to frequent during her childhood years before it was transformed into…
A dangerous trade sweeps Iraq… “Forex” victims lose billions
Noor Al-Ali (20 years old) from Baghdad, at the beginning of 2021, thought that she would move from a housewife with only a high school diploma to financial independence by entering the “Forex” market after her close friend convinced her to do so. In order to take her first step…
Diyala River.. Pollutants and the inability of “Al-Rustamiya” destroy life
Only a few days had passed since Murtadha was born in Al-Zafaraniya Hospital, south of the capital Baghdad, until his parents brought him back and admitted him to the premature infant ward, hoping that his breathing would return to normal after a suffocation attack that struck him due to the…
