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:
America’s Blind Spot on Palestine
Contesting Sectarian Identity in Iraq
[Arabic] LGBTQ Rights in Egypt
Kurdish Nationalism at an Impasse
[Arabic] Universal and Minority Rights in the Middle East
Universal and Minority Rights in the Middle East
The Caliphate’s Last Stand
Israel’s Global Security Industry
Syrian Voices
A New Progressive International?
Iran after the Broken Deal
The Difficulty of Reporting from Assad’s Syria
The Challenges of Defending Human Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Overlapping Wars in Yemen—and U.S. Complicity in Catastrophe
Iraq’s New Government, and Rebuilding Syria
How Germany Is Integrating One Million Syrian Refugees
New thinking about American liberal foreign policy
How to Research Lebanon’s Youth Problem (and Other Questions)
Recruiting militants: Greed or grievance?
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