Digital and human rights activists say Ballegh’s very existence flies in the face of free speech provisions enshrined in Iraq’s post-Saddam Hussein constitution 20 years ago.
Years of war and violence have interrupted and undermined Iraq’s music scene, with many musicians fleeing the country. But the current relative stability has created a space for its revival.
Iraqi author Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has a new book called, "A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War." It's an ode to a city shattered by war. Abdul-Ahad speaks with The World’s Marco Werman about his childhood home, the cycle of sectarian violence set in motion by the US-led invasion in 2003 and what might lie ahead for the centuries-old, cosmopolitan city.
Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi was thrust into the global spotlight in 2008 after he threw his shoes at then-US President George W. Bush. Two decades after the US-led invasion of Iraq, he says his country is still paying the price.
Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive this week into how the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 not only dismantled the government but destroyed an entire nation, forcing a mass exodus of certain ethnic and religious minorities.
This week, the announcement of the resignation of a powerful cleric in Iraq sparked deadly clashes in the capital, Baghdad. On Monday, Moqtada al-Sadr said he is stepping away from politics. In response, his supporters stormed the Green Zone.
As the US finds itself embroiled in another war, though not with troops, we are reairing our series, "How Wars End," which first ran in 2008.
Iraqi protesters aligned with Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement stormed the heavily militarized Green Zone and Iraqi Parliament building on Wednesday. The World's Marco Werman spoke with Hamzeh Hadad, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, about the protesters' demands and the political gridlock plaguing Iraq.
About a dozen dust storms have blown across Iraq this year with increased frequency and intensity. Experts say that it's due to climate change, drought and desertification.
Recent fighting between the Iraqi army and a local militia in heavily populated civilian areas has led to the displacement of an estimated 10,000 people.
El Shafee Elsheikh, a former British citizen accused of taking part in a brutal ISIS hostage-taking scheme, has been convicted in a federal court in Virginia of assisting in the kidnapping and deaths of four Americans between 2012 and 2015.