September’s mass protests in Basra shook Iraq’s government all the way to the top—and perhaps mark a new phase in Iraq’s popular politics. In a brief wave of demonstrations, residents of Basra attacked government buildings, militia headquarters, and the Iranian consulate: symbols of the corruption that has kept their city poor, polluted, and starved of public services, despite the fact that it produces most of Iraq’s oil.
Tamer El-Ghobashy covered the protests in Basra, and here discusses why Iraq’s second city reached a breaking point. He also reflects on the decidedly post-sectarian turn in Iraq’s dysfunctional politics. The mostly poor, mostly Shia residents of southern Iraq provided the rank-and-file fighters for the war against the Islamic State. Now, they want to see some improvement in their quality of life. The protests ended incumbent prime minister Haidar al-Abadi’s quest for another term. What impact will they have long-term on Iraq’s appalling governance?
Participants include:
Citizenship Finale: Learning, from Protests to Movements
Citizenship: Skill-Building, from Protests to Movements
Citizenship: Police Reform Is a Global Industry
Citizenship: Who’s Afraid of Gender?
Citizenship: Beyond Exceptionalism—the “Middle East,” Gender, and Sexuality
Citizenship: Are We Really in an Age of Militias?
Citizenship: Gender, Religion, and Militias
Citizenship Introduction: A Global Crisis in Citizenship
War in Ukraine, Pain in Syria
Making Lemonade from the Abraham Accords
Closing Syria’s Border to Aid
Syrians Are Going Hungry
Iran and Saudi Start to Talk
Thaw Between Turkey and Egypt
Yemen’s Wars at a Turning Point
Rethinking American Assumptions about the Middle East
Egypt’s Revolution at 10
War Comes Homes
America’s Attempted Coup
Nature and National Security in the Middle East
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