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The Demographic Trap Renewed: Identity Politics and the Failure of
Fakherddin Salih, a Kurd who returned to Kirkuk after 2003, is one of hundreds of Kurdish families threatened with eviction from their homes. For nearly a year, Salih and others guarded their homes, fearing forced displacement by the Iraqi army, pressured by "influential Arabs" seeking to reclaim residential and agricultural lands that the Ba'ath regime had granted them after seizing them from their original Kurdish and Turkmen owners. This is a deep-rooted and recurrent conflict over property, fueled by partisan interests and constantly shifting administrative and security power dynamics in the oil-rich province, which is home to a mix of…
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Under Official and Clerical Protection: The Boom of Fraudulent Shrines
Alawiya bint al-Hasan is the name given to a shrine established last year in the agricultural area of Al-Bu Hadari in Kufa district, Najaf governorate, southern Iraq. It joins hundreds of shrines, maqams, and religious sites that suddenly appeared in Iraq over the past two decades, which specialists describe as…
Is Mosul Truly the City of Forty Prophets?
Khadija Ahmed, 71, still adheres to a tradition she has followed since her youth: a weekly visit to the Prophet Jonah’s Mosque on the eastern side of Mosul. She only stopped during the years of ISIS control, when the group prohibited such visits and ultimately blew up the mosque in…
ماهي مبادرة عراقيون؟
نخب اكاديمية ومدنية تطلق مبادرة “عراقيون” للإصلاح السياسي والاجتماعي
Al-Gharraf Oil Field… The First Accused of Spreading Cancer in
Only 600 meters away from the Gharraf oil field, located to the north of Dhi Qar Governorate, is the home of young Ali Hussein Alwan (19 years old). In early February 2023, doctors discovered a tumor in his brain. He underwent two surgeries to remove it at the Al-Ahli International…
The Demographic Change Haunts Minorities in the Nineveh Plain
Since Imad Zuhair (a pseudonym, 47 years old) returned to Qaraqosh, the center of the Hamdaniya district in the Nineveh Plain, after it was liberated from ISIS in late 2016, he has not stopped thinking about leaving the country as soon as he finds a suitable opportunity for himself and…
Marginalization policies and lack of justice… The Yezidis of Sheikhan
After spending nearly four decades in Sheikhan, Hadi Dubbani (57 years old) left the country with his family, leaving the Yezidi town located north of Mosul to settle in Germany, as did dozens of his relatives. He says in a choked voice: “ISIS destroyed everything for us, it turned our…
