In October 2019, a broad based protest movement in Iraq seized international headlines with mass rallies, marches, occupation-style encampments, and civil disobedience in Baghdad and other cities across the south. Activists dubbed their movement “Tishreen” from the Arabic word for October. Despite the largely peaceful, inclusive, and organized nature of… Read more
Originally published by the LSE Middle East Center Blog – October 5, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s threat to close the American embassy in Baghdad exposes a dangerous dichotomy in the Trump administration’s Iraq policy. Less than six weeks ago, the administration gave visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi… Read more
Originally published by Middle East Monitor – September 3, 2020
On 4 August, Iraqi activist Ridha Al-Igaili’s home in Amara, the capital of Maysan province, was attacked by militiamen who fired a rocket-propelled grenade and sprayed the building with bullets. This was the second attempt on his life this year.… Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic, which for the first few months seemed to mysteriously spare Iraq’s exposed population, is now hitting the country of 39 million and its under-resourced health system hard. The main cause has been poor compliance with social distancing policies by many Iraqis who haven’t taken the pandemic seriously… Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting Iraq at a particularly bad time. The country has just begun to ramp up testing for the highly contagious virus, and the 1,031 confirmed cases and 64 deaths to date may only be the tip of an iceberg yet to reveal itself. These figures may… Read more
The nonviolent struggle for democratic reforms in Iraq is now well into its fifth month of sustained protests against the government. We talk with Hayder Hamzoz, founder of INSM (Iraqi Network for Social Media), a network of Iraqi bloggers and citizens journalists. Hayder shares his perspective on how the protests work and the critical role that social media activists are playing on both the physical and digital front lines of Iraq's protest movement.
Originally published by the Middle East Institute – January 27, 2020
As an Iraqi American who lived through the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 U.S.-led invasion to bring about regime change, I have witnessed firsthand how U.S. wars in the region can break out when Baghdad and Washington fail to… Read more
Earlier this year, EPIC received an email from Jacquelyn Thomas of Lakewood, Colorado. Jacquelyn is the mother of an extraordinary girl named Vanicia (who’s now 11 years old). Her mom wrote: “My daughter [is] raising funds for kids in Iraq. We would like to donate the money raised to… Read more
Interview with Mr. Hussein al-Shabaki, member of the Free Shabak Movement
This is the third in a series of interviews we had with representatives of various minority communities in Ninewa. More interviews will be published in the coming weeks.
As part of EPIC’s work on Safe Return, a USAID project… Read more
Interview with Ido Babasheikh, Former Member of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Parliament and former adviser to the president of Iraq.
This is the second of a series of interviews we had with representatives of various minority communities in Ninewa that will be published in the following weeks.
In July,… Read more
