INSIDE BZEIBIZ CAMP: When ‘temporary displacement’ lasts 12 years

By Ahmed Kawkab in Anbar // On the edge of Anbar province in central Iraq, the Bzeibiz camp for displaced people looks like many similar camps set up in Iraq when the extremist group known as the Islamic State, or IS, was fighting government forces. That is, there are rows of faded tents, dusty paths…

CULINARY CONTRADICTIONS: Syrian food is prospering in Iraq —but the Syrians making it are not

By Draf Alla in Erbil // At night in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, the streets are filled with the smell of grilled food and the buzz of lively conversation around café tables. Syrian restaurants have become a constant in this scene. Restaurant names from Syria, like Damascene Paradise, are…

What do Iraqi women expect from the new government ?

IRAQ’S ‘LIVING  WATER’ IS DYING: How climate change threatens Mandaean religious rituals

By Nagham Makki in Basra // On a quiet morning along the banks of the Shatt al-Arab, beneath a bridge, Mazen al-Naif, the spiritual leader of the Mandaean religious community in the southern province of Basra, steps into the water wearing the traditional white garments of his faith. The “rasta” robe clings to the 55-year-old’s…

ON THE FRONTLINES OF CLIMATE CHANGE: How Iraqi women are impacted most

By Mawj Iyad in Baghdad // On the outskirts of Baghdad, the landscape is shifting in ways that are impossible to ignore. Soil once rich and fertile is turning salty. Water sources are drying up or becoming too polluted to use. Smoke from refineries, burn pits and trash fires hangs low over villages, forming a…

BREAKING WITH BARBER’S TRADITION: A young Iraqi combines mobility with service

By Mustafa Jmal Murad in Baghdad // The rest of his family used to love football and in the neighborhood where he grew up, the Dora district in Baghdad, the alleys often came alive with the shouts of children chasing a ball or each other. But Saif Saad, 23, didn't often join them. Instead he…

BALLS OF CLAY: Working with the ‘seed bomber’ of Maysan

By Mahdi al-Saadi in Maysan // Every rainy season in Iraq, a man nicknamed “conqueror of the desert” by locals can be seen throwing small clay balls around the remote eastern districts of Maysan province in southern Iraq. It may sound odd but in fact, there is a distinctive environmental reason behind the scenes. Each…

ONE MANGROVE AT A TIME: The Iraqis ‘greening’ Basra’s waterways

By Nagham Makki in Basra // Near a narrow creek in Khor Al Zubair in southern Iraq, 28-year-old Dunia Safaa Abdul Hussein picks her way across thick mud, with a mangrove seedling cradle in her hands. She moves cautiously between neat rows of young plants. Each one is a small promise of a new life,…

MEMORIES OF THE OCCUPATION: Dreams that died without a shot fired

By Nagham Makki in Basra // The radio once echoed through my late father's room, it's sound filling our home. He would grip it tightly, holding onto his link to the world, while I listened by the door, anxious. Back then, our house had become too small. The war [when the US invaded Iraq in…

DANGER ON HOME FRONT: How the Iran war is increasing domestic violence in Iraq

By Murtada al-Hudoud in Dhi Qar // It feels like a nightmare at home, says Um Mohammed, an Iraqi woman who lives in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. Since the US and Israel attacked Iran, sparking a regional conflict, neighboring Iraq has been impacted by things like fuel shortages and rising prices. Locals are…