Niqash: briefings from inside and across Iraq 
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ramadan - a time to get closer to your political party
The Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s population of around 4 million people is 95 percent Muslim. The region is also home to over 4,500 mosques. It is fertile ground for the Islamic parties, especially during Ramadan.
All three Islamic political... more
anbaristan: police to hunt fast-breakers
"Before criminalizing non-fasters in public areas, security forces should be criminalized," said Suhayb al-Rawi, a resident of al-Malaab area in al-Ramadi city center in responding to an order issued at the beginning of Ramadan banning people from... more
the aviator
Nariman Anwar, a 33 year old from Erbil, is a man who had a dream. From a young age, he desperately wanted to build planes. After he began aged 14, building a radio-controlled model, he has gone on to build a total of seven aircraft, completely to... more
fareed lafta, the iraqi superman
Too often, Iraq is well known for the wrong reasons. If there were
Guinness World Records for conflict, it would sadly be well
represented. But Fareed Lafta is trying to change that. This young
Iraqi grew up in Baghdad has devoted his life to... more
halabja victims still wait for compensation
"I lost my whole family and nothing can compensate me for that loss but it is time our town was compensated,” says Aras Abed who still remembers the chemical weapons attack on Halabja despite the many years that have passed.
The other twelve... more
the high cost of war
Ghada fled Mosul two years ago. She has dark hair and dark eyes marked with black Kajal. She is one of the most beautiful girls you will meet in Iraq.
“This, exactly this, has been the reason for all my misery,” she says. In Mosul, cultured... more
abuse of women continues
Karima Damad dressed in black and was married in complete silence with no ceremony. The marriage was arranged in the early 1990s after one of her relatives killed a relative of her now husband.
Her case is not rare. Inter-tribal disputes like... more
all quiet in karbala
20 year-old Maher Abed is annoyed. The Karbala resident can no longer listen to loud music in his car or celebrate occasions in public with singing and dancing, after the law to curb ‘scandalous behaviour’ in the city.
Maher tries to respect... more
poor equipment cost lives
Karwan Saddiqi will never forget the tragic scenes he saw in Sulaimaniyah on 15 July. The 28 year-old was among those who volunteered to help rescue guests trapped in a blaze in the Soma Hotel after fire broke out in a second floor furniture shop... more
selling the occupation to anbar residents
Abudi-Rahman al-Karbouli stands in the doorway of his shop, calling passers-by into his shop.
"Cheap devices in excellent condition! Come in and see with your own eyes!"
The shelves of Karbouli’s shop on the outskirts of Anbar city in... more
factories pollute the air in karbala
Two-year old Ibrahim, who lives with his family near one of Karbala’s bricks factories, has developed bouts of severe coughing. His mother and father work in the factory, which produces bricks used in construction projects. Officials say that the... more
on the road to karbala
From Iraq’s most southern city, Basra, to Kirkuk on the border of the Kurdistan Region in the North, millions of pilgrims walk barefoot to Karbala every year.
The pilgrims make three journeys each year, despite the deaths of thousands of them in... more
mosques the new homes for politics
Kadhim Abbadi is a regular visitor to the Buratha mosque in the al-Utayfiyah neighbourhood of Baghdad. Like many mosques in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, the mosque is known for its political affiliations. Buratha is closely aligned with the Islamic... more
surgery surge
Amira, 42, regrets the plastic surgery she had done on her cheeks but that is not stopping her from planning another visit to a clinic for more.
Amira is not a war victim. Her face was never scarred by bullets or bombs. But four months ago, she... more
health reforms vital in kurdistan
Sixty percent of Iraqi Kurdistan Region doctors have not been through any health related training in the past five years.
Peoples’ complaints concerning the doctor’s skill and negligence is on the rise in Kurdistan Region; and the doctors who... more
ethnic exodus
On 1 May 2008, just days before the launch of Um al-Rabiain security campaign by security forces in Mosul, four masked men in the broad daylight marched into the crowded al-Jazaer market in the center of Mosul and fired 20 bullets, killing a city... more
dust? anybody?
Around a small window inside the al-Husayniyah courtyard in Karbala city, near the historic Bab al-Sidra, large groups of people of all ages gather every day. They queue for a long time and at the end, they are given small bags filled with... more
throwing the old text books out
Sahar Luqa has recently finished her fifth grade exams. She is now getting ready for the baccalaureate. Luqa was surprised to know that a decision has been taken by the Iraqi Ministry of Education to teach math for the scientific stream in English... more
latest comment
Dr.Ranj Aqrawy: "First of all my regard to every body..."