"Why are they killing us? For asking for clean water": Iraq's broken youth

The Iraqi reality is, at the very least, bleak and sad. It is not a current discontent, but a broken and burnt-out character of society itself. It is not today's problems or issues that are most alarming, but all the discontent of the past decade, that of a lost and silenced generation. The geopolitical tension between Iran and the United States, which continues to maintain its military bases on Iraqi territory defending positions lost many years ago, is creating even greater social anguish and a tense environment as to what is expected from this broken Iraq.

Iraq and the Iraqis feel subjected to foreign opinion, to internal oppression, and are unable to find effective solutions from those who owe them a dignified life; the Iraqis are experiencing the indignation inherent in their nationality.
"As far as the demonstrations in Iraq are concerned, they began in 2011 and were interrupted, but have persisted ever since. Young people took to the streets to ask for basic things, depending on the area the proclamations changed, in some areas they asked for water purification as in the case of Basra, in others to start up industries to increase the employability of young people. They asked for the reactivation of the electricity industry and the agro-food industry, which had been stopped since 2003. However, what began as simple demonstrations to improve the lives of Iraqis ended up becoming a social revolution," political analyst Hicham Aljumaa tells Atalayar.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left only 3,000 infected and hundreds of dead, despite its poor health system, but what is really stifling the Iraqi economy today and causing exorbitant social ills is the situation of the so-called "black gold", which accounts for 90 percent of the country's income. However, the fall in the price of oil that the pandemic has brought as an ultimate consequence is the same for all Arab and Western countries, estimated at between 25 and 30 dollars at present.

In Iraq, despite being the OPEC's second largest producer, extraction is in the hands of foreign companies such as British Petroleum, Exxon and Shell, which substantially changes the economic benefits for Iraq; furthermore, the percentage distribution policies have been modified in order to balance the profits of these multinationals as little as possible. The Iraqi government collected $1.5 billion from oil exports in April and owed $5 billion in wages, pensions and other expenses; the government failed to pay pensions during May on the grounds of this supposed economic deficit, according to Kamran Karadaghi, the former head of the government cabinet. "Young people have asked for work, dignity, to be citizens and subjects of law. Today Iraq is one of the countries in the Middle East with the worst living conditions, lacking a good education and health system. The air and water are contaminated," says Hicham Aljumaa clearly.

"They were young demonstrators and became young revolutionaries. Their demands were rebuked and smothered by the state's coercive forces, the police, militias related to Iran, extremist Islamist groups. The activists started to be killed and the government did not arrest any of the responsible people, which only makes the young people indignant that they were not only non-violent, demonstrating in a peaceful way, but also had logical demands. Of course, the demands stopped being simple social demands and started being political ones, Aljumaa told Atalayar. Young people in Iraq under 25 years old represent 60% of the population, and half of this population group is unemployed. Those with the privilege of working in the public sector are warned of a future cut of up to 35% in their wages.

This cut generates the possibility of new demonstrations within the weak balance, demonstrations that have been perpetuated since October, demanding a complete reform in social, health and labour matters that comes hand in hand with a political renewal that does not marginalize and ignore the reality of young people. These demonstrations have claimed the lives of 700 activists, leaving thousands of Iraqis injured, who had taken to the streets to demand social justice, equality and democracy. The repression is being carried out by the police, the army and Shiite militias which are presumed to be linked to Iran; however, there are still no real convictions or arrests for these murders which seem to have a controlled background. The latest demonstrations took place all over the country from Baghdad, Nassiriya, Diwaniya, Samawa, to Basra in southern Iraq, where the tragic death of Riham Yaqoob occurred.

"Why are we being killed? For asking for drinking water? I would tell the Minister of Health to drink tap water from Basra. It is contaminated. We took to the streets with respect from the first moment, but nobody empathizes with us, with our youth, nobody feels what we suffer, nobody represents us in the Government". This is what the young woman who was murdered on 21 August said. A brilliant young doctor, with thousands of followers on social platforms where she vindicated her activist ideology for social rights, social justice and political change. We see Riham not only as the heroine of a generation, not only as a martyr of justice, who sacrificed her life fighting for the rights of all, we also see her as the reflection of a growing feminist empowerment in a country that suffers from the most vile of patriarchies, women who have become tired of silence, and who today in Tahrir Square everyone listens, applauds, follows. Women leaders silenced by power.

According to the Iraqi political activist Ali Almekdam in social networks, "Riham was a strong defender of individual freedoms and civil rights in Basra and that is an unbreakable red line for the Iraqi extremists and religious people in Basra". "Riham could mobilise thousands of women with a single internet posting and made several feminist appeals while organising numerous demonstrations for women's rights and freedoms," says Ali Alemekdam, who also notes that "it is unthinkable that in the Middle East something like this would happen normally, Riham was in the eye of the storm. In 2018 Riham was singled out for supporting the United States to the detriment of Tehran, accusations that were made again a week before her death. Riham was also reportedly receiving death threats. Almekdam stresses that Riham simply "contradicted the extremist discourse, and that cost him his life, both as an activist and as a woman".