Groceries And
Election Results...
By Baghdad Burning
19 February, 2005
Baghdad Burning
Yesterday,
one of our neighbors stopped by the house. She was carrying a hot plate
of some green beans in a tomato sauce. Abu Ammar has some wonderful
green beans, she confided. But you have to tell him to give
you some of the ones he hides under the table- the ones on display are
a little bit chewy. I added green beans to the grocery list and
headed off with E. to Abu Ammar.
Our local grocer,
Abu Ammar has a vegetable and fruit stand set up about 400 m away from
our house, on the main street. He has been there for as long as anyone
can remember and although you would not know it to see him, Abu Ammar
is quite the entrepreneur. He wears a traditional dishdasha all year
round and on cold days, a worn leather jacket and a black wool cap he
pulls down over his ears.
We, and almost every
house on the street, buy our groceries from him. He sets up his stand
early in the morning and when you pass it by at just the right time,
theres a myriad of colors: the even brown of potatoes, deep green
of spinach, bright orange of citrus fruits and the glossy red of sweet
Iraqi tomatoes
And Abu Ammar is almost always there- come rain
or sun or war, sitting in the midst of his vegetables and fruits, going
through a newspaper, a cigarette in his mouth and crackling out of his
little transistor radio are the warm tones of Fayrouz. On those rare
occasions when Abu Ammar isnt there, you can tell something is
very wrong.
Abu Ammar sat there
in his usual place. I could tell he was doing a crossword today because
he kept making marks on the newspaper. Abu Ammar rose to greet us and
handed me a few plastic bags so I could pick and choose the vegetables
I wanted. I have some very good lemons today, he declared,
tucking the newspaper under his arm and pointing to a pyramid of small
greenish-yellow fruits. I wandered over to the lemons and inspected
them critically.
I feel like I have
my finger on the throbbing pulse of the Iraqi political situation every
time I visit Abu Ammar. You can often tell just how things are going
in the country from the produce available at his stand. For example,
when he doesnt have any good tomatoes we know that the roads to
Basra are either closed or really bad and the tomatoes arent getting
through to Baghdad. When citrus fruit isnt available during the
winter months, we know that the roads to Diyala are probably risky and
oranges and lemons couldnt be delivered. He'll also give you the
main news headlines he picks up from various radio stations and if you
feel so inclined, you can read the headlines from any one of the assorted
newspapers lying in a pile near his feet. Plus, he has all of the neighborhood
gossip.
Did you know
Abu Hamids family are going to move? He took a drag from
the cigarette and pointed with his ballpoint pen towards a house about
100 m away from his stand.
Really?
I asked, turning my attention to the tomatoes, How did you hear?
I saw them showing the house to a couple last week and then I
saw them showing it again this week
theyre trying to sell
it.
Did you hear
about the election results? E. asked Abu Ammar. Abu Ammar shook
his head in the affirmative and squashed his cigarette with a slippered
foot. Well, we were expecting it. He shrugged his shoulders
and continued, Most Shia voted for list 169. They were blaring
it out at the Husseiniya near our house the night of the elections.
I was there for evening prayer. A Husseiniya is a sort of mosque
for Shia. We had heard that many of them were campaigning for list 169-
the Sistani-backed list.
I shook my head
and sighed. So do you still think the Americans want to turn Iraq
into another America? You said last year that if we gave them a chance,
Baghdad would look like New York. I said in reference to a conversation
we had last year. E. gave me a wary look and tried to draw my attention
to some onions, Oh hey- look at the onions- do we have onions?
Abu Ammar shook
his head and sighed, Well if were New York or were
Baghdad or were hell, its not going to make a difference
to me. Ill still sell my vegetables here.
I nodded and handed
over the bags to be weighed. Well
theyre going to
turn us into another Iran. You know list 169 means we might turn into
Iran. Abu Ammar pondered this a moment as he put the bags on the
old brass scale and adjusted the weights.
And is Iran
so bad? He finally asked. Well no, Abu Ammar, I wanted to answer,
its not bad for *you* - youre a man
if anything your
right to several temporary marriages, a few permanent ones and the right
to subdue females will increase. Why should it be so bad? Instead I
was silent. Its not a good thing to criticize Iran these days.
I numbly reached for the bags he handed me, trying to rise out of that
sinking feeling that overwhelmed me when the results were first made
public.
Its not about
a Sunni government or a Shia government- its about the possibility
of an Iranian-modeled Iraq. Many Shia are also appalled with the results
of the elections. Theres talk of Sunnis being marginalized by
the elections but that isnt the situation. Its not just
Sunnis- its moderate Shia and secular people in general who have
been marginalized.
The list is frightening-
Daawa, SCIRI, Chalabi, Hussein Shahristani and a whole collection
of pro-Iran political figures and clerics. They are going to have a
primary role in writing the new constitution. Theres talk of Sharia,
or Islamic law, having a very primary role in the new constitution.
The problem is, whose Sharia? Sharia for many Shia differs
from that of Sunni Sharia. And what about all the other religions?
What about Christians and Mendiyeen?
Is anyone surprised
that the same people who came along with the Americans the same
puppets who all had a go at the presidency last year are the
ones who came out on top in the elections? Jaffari, Talbani, Barazani,
Hakim, Allawi, Chalabi
exiles, convicted criminals and war lords.
Welcome to the new Iraq.
Ibraheim Al-Jaffari,
the head of the pro-Iran Daawa party gave an interview the other
day. He tried very hard to pretend he was open-minded and that he wasnt
going to turn the once-secular Iraq into a fundamentalist Shia state
but the fact of the matter remains that he is the head of the Daawa
party. The same party that was responsible for some of the most infamous
explosions and assassinations in Iraq during the last few decades. This
is the same party that calls for an Islamic Republic modeled like Iran.
Most of its members have spent a substantial amount of time in Iran.
Jaffari cannot separate
himself from the ideology of his party.
Then theres
Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq (SCIRI). He got to be puppet president for the month of December
and what was the first thing he did? He decided overburdened, indebted
Iraq owed Iran 100 billion dollars. What was the second thing he did?
He tried to have the personal status laws that protect individuals
(and especially women) eradicated.
They try to give
impressive interviews to western press but the situation is wholly different
on the inside. Women feel it the most. Theres an almost constant
pressure in Baghdad from these parties for women to cover up what little
they have showing. Theres a pressure in many colleges for the
segregation of males and females. There are the threats, and the printed
and verbal warnings, and sometimes we hear of attacks or insults.
You feel it all
around you. It begins slowly and almost insidiously. You stop wearing
slacks or jeans or skirts that show any leg because you dont want
to be stopped in the street and lectured by someone who doesnt
approve. You stop wearing short sleeves and start preferring wider shirts
with a collar that will cover up some of you neck. You stop letting
your hair flow because you dont want to attract attention to it.
On the days when you forget to pull it back into a ponytail, you want
to kick yourself and you rummage around in your handbag trying to find
a hair band
hell, a rubber band to pull back your hair and make
sure you attract less attention from *them*.
We were seriously
discussing this situation the other day with a friend. The subject of
the veil and hijab came up and I confessed my fear that while they might
not make it a law, there would be enough pressure to make it a requirement
for women when they leave their homes. He shrugged his shoulders and
said, Well women in Iran will tell you its not so bad- you
know that they just throw something on their heads and use makeup and
go places, etc. True enough. But it wasnt like that at the
beginning. It took them over two decades to be able to do that. In the
eighties, women were hauled off the streets and detained or beaten for
the way they dressed.
Its also not
about covering the hair. I have many relatives and friends who wore
a hijab before the war. Its the principle. Its having so
little freedom that even your wardrobe is dictated. And wardrobe is
just the tip of the iceberg. There are clerics and men who believe women
shouldnt be able to work or that they shouldnt be allowed
to do certain jobs or study in specific fields. Something that disturbed
me about the election forms was that it indicated whether the voter
was male or female- why should that matter?
Could it be because in Sharia, a womens vote or voice counts
for half of that of a man? Will they implement that in the future?
Baghdad is once
more shrouded in black. The buildings and even some of the houses have
large black pieces of cloth hanging upon them, as if the whole city
is mourning the election results. Its because of Ashoura
or the ten days marking the beginning of the Islamic New Year but also
marking the death of the Prophets family 1400+ years ago in what
is now known as Karbala. That means there are droves of religious Shia
dressed in black from head to foot (sometimes with a touch of green
or red) walking in the streets and beating themselves with special devices
designed for this occasion.
Weve been
staying at home most of the time because its not a good idea to
leave the house during these ten days. It took us an hour and 20 minutes
to get to my aunts house yesterday because so many streets were
closed with masses of men chanting and beating themselves. To say it
is frightening is an understatement. Some of the men are even bleeding
and they wear white to emphasize all the blood flowing down backs and
foreheads. Its painful to see small children wearing black clothes
and carrying miniature chains that really dont hurt, but look
so bizarre.
Quite frankly, its
disgusting. Its a quasi political show of Sadomasochism that has
nothing to do with religion. In Islam its unfavorable to hurt
the human body. Moderate Shia also find it appalling and slightly embarrassing.
E. teases the Shia cousin constantly, So this your idea of a good
time, ha? But the cousin is just is revolted, although he cant
really express it. Were so free now, its not
good idea to publicly express your distaste to the whole bloody affair.
I can, however, express it on my blog
Weve also
heard of several more abductions and now assassinations. They say Badirs
Brigade have come out with a new list of wanted
but
dead, not alive. Its a list of mainly Sunni professors, former
army generals, doctors, etc. Already there have been three assassinations
in Saydiyeh, an area that is a mix of Sunnis and Shia. They say Badirs
Brigade people broke into the house and gunned down the families. This
assassination spree is, apparently, a celebration of the election results.
Its interesting
to watch American politicians talk about how American troops are the
one thing standing between Sunnis and Shia killing each other in the
streets. It looks more and more these days like thats not true.
Right now, during all these assassinations and abductions, the troops
are just standing aside and letting Iraqis get at each other. Not only
that, but the new army or the National Guard are just around to protect
American troops and squelch any resistance.
There was hope of
a secular Iraq, even after the occupation. That hope is fading fast.