As an Iraqi, I do ask this question to myself a lot, what the world opinion on modern Iraq. It changed a lot especially after ISIS war, but people here generally don’t value the change that much due to high unemployment rates, drought, and bossy militias.
Lovely people, amazing history, real shame about the politics. Also sorry about what my country did to yours. I hear your country is gorgeous.
Gilgamesh
I know very little about iraq.
I’ll just throw mine in to help confirm some of the general consensus coming from the states. Before 9/11, nothing really. A few brief mentions in history class etc, our education is horrible about human history but shoves American history down your throat. During the wars? Absolutely fucking horrific that any country is just allowed to attack an area like that. Every time I heard about some new operation I thought about how my family (if they were in that situation) would be huddle in the corner of a room just hoping to survive the night. Something that would make me want to lash out at anything because of the danger to my family, I never got why ANYONE thought this would “stop the terrorizing” by making more radicalized citizens.
After and currently, I’m completely blown away by the historical and cultural context of Iraq. In school there was never an emphasis on how important that country was to the civilization that we have now. Every documentary or book I read that touches on ancient history includes that area. I think if it was better taught in schools, the general consensus would’ve been more honorable towards finding a solution that worked for both countries.
Shoves American mythology down your throat, a large amount of what you were taught is just straight up lies or lacks incredible amounts of context.
Bossy militias… we call those cops here in the US. As for Iraq, I think of the people I have met from there and that area. All good people. As for the government… I don’t know of a single government that I think positively of. Once you get enough people in one organization, it attracts the worst kind of people to join.
OP what do women feel about Iraq in Iraq?
For 100 years women was treated as the inferior gender not just in Iraq but all around the Arabian Gulf area due to religious/customary reasons. Iraq was one of the first countries to allow women to drive, it was and will be the most secular middle eastern country. After the American invasion on Iraq women’s rights was at decline because of the war, and it’s now even better than ever. So they feel pretty much normal I guess, they even sometimes have more freedom than us men here.
This is a place where honor killings, female genital mutilation, and arranged/child marriages are commonplace. I get that progress takes time, and that war was a major setback, but trying to portray Iraq as a safe place for women to travel is disingenuous at best.
Also:
“they even sometimes have more freedom then men here,”
Wtf are you smoking? Please give me an example of a situation in which this is true, because considering what I’ve read so far, i have MAJOR doubts.
I wonder why my comment was removed by the mods!?
It’s great to hear a bit of inside news. It’s so sad that when war subsides news coverage dus as well. Your post made me realize that.
I really hope the middle east can get the corruption of oil or of it’s system and the rigidity of the extreme interpretations of Islam.
Thanks for the perspective, brother.
I LOVE the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the historic city of Uruk (Warka) is in modern day Iraq. In that way, I have a lot of respect for the history. However, I would be too scared to travel there, for example. I hope truly that now after ISIS war, things keep getting better for the people there. I don’t hear many news from there anymore, though I wouldn’t mind hearing.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is really cool, I wish there were more modern reinterpretations of it, though.
Lots of tourists come around here, mainly to The marshes, the city of Babylon and Ur, yearly from the month of November to April where the temperature rates are at it’s modest. I recommend you coming here, it’s not that scary really from the tourists perspective.
I think Iraq has a similar climate to the desert where I live. Having grown up in the desert of the US, I have always wanted to visit other deserts to see how other cultures deal with the heat/dryness firsthand.
Beyond that and the obvious war news I do not know too much about Iraq.
I think of it as a highly imperialized and exploited country full of workers trying to make it a better place for eachother. In short, a victim of empire who deserves our material support in their struggle. However, this is my position on a lot of places.
I don’t know much about modern Iraq outside of how the US has affected it in all honesty. I know little about its current governmental structure or the major political forces at play. Would you mind giving me a brief synopsis?
There are like 20 or even more government parties, I stopped counting them really, they all fight for who will be in charge of different sections of the government each one of them having no chance of agreement with each other, which results in a a political conflict the last 14 years at the end of every election cycle on which party is the prime minister nominated from, in the end it comes down to the nomination of an acceptable figure among these parties. And it doesn’t take long until each one of them starts digging holes in the way of that figure for the sake of benefits, either Money, investment contracts، positions amongst the authority.
It really doesn’t effect us that much now with them recently settling down to form an electoral alliance in the last 2 years. It has become more safe the last 6-8 years so much to hold sports events “recently The Arabian Gulf Cup Which was won by Iraq btw”. Iraq has come along way and now somewhat on par with its neighboring countries.
I’m glad to hear things are improving for y’all :D
Best of luck o7
We just don’t think of Iraq.
No matter how big the protest is… the war will continue. Feeling represented yet?
I’m Canadian. I would say that I don’t think much about it in terms of current events, I haven’t heard much in the news about it in recent years. And my assumption from that is that’s probably a good sign. There used to be a steady stream of bad news, and “no news” lies along the path in between “bad news” and “good news.”
I did see a video recently about Iraq’s plans for a giant new port facility on that little tidbit of Persian Gulf shoreline it has and road/rail link from it up through to Turkey, and thence onward into Europe. It sounded like a very optimistic development if it can be seen through to fruition, opening an alternative trade corridor to the Suez Canal. Anything that diversifies a country’s economy is a good thing, and anything that removes single points of failure in global shipping networks is also a good thing. I can’t imagine the Houthi obstruction of the Red Sea would still be a problem by the time that route opens up but at least it’ll be an option if something like it happens again.
(bart simpson voice) The exports of
LibyaIraq are numerous in amount. One thing they export is corn, or as the Indians called it, “maize”. Another famous Indian was Crazy Horse. In conclusion,LibyaIraq is a land of contrasts. Thank you.joking aside, sorry about America.
Well, we don’t get a lot of easy to find news on Iraq here in the US. You have to go looking for it.
That being said, with the little that I have gone looking for, it really seems like the people of Iraq are busting their asses to recover, and have shown incredible resilience in the face of so much destruction that hit them in the last fifty years. It’s impressive as hell tbh.
That’s been my impression as well. Other countries recovering from a conflict seem to have a lot of people still looking for others to blame for their problems but Iraqis seem more interested in just trying to make things a little better each day. I think if they can hold on to that hope their future will be bright.
Are you an Iraqi in Iraq? I am an ex-iraqi but have lived in the Nordics majority of my life. People here don’t talk much about the country, but the few tourists that go there go to Erbil and only have good things to say about it.
Would love to hear your own experience too.
Yes, born raised and probably gonna die here. I live in southern region of Iraq, specifically the city of Nasiryah. Generally everything are still lacking behind due to years of war but it’s getting better bit by bit with some hiccups because of the Iranian government influence, inflation, corruption.
Good that improvements are happening. I was briedly in basra long time ago. Stay strong!
