This post was written by Fatima for her blog “Thoughts From Baghdad” and cross-posted to the Olivebranch Network.

Bilal and my oldest the night before we left Baghdad. December 2006.

My husband is here from Baghdad for a short visit. We spend a lot of time at his parents house with his cousin ‘A’ who is also here from Baghdad and attempting to move on with his life. A is mashaAllah in good spirits. Not only is he laughing but most importantly he is making all of us around him laugh. He’s brought a beautiful touch of Baghdad back here with him.

We sit with him listening to his stories of Baghdad and reminisce with him. He mentions his brother, Bilal, Allah yirhamuh, often; when we’re eating, taking pictures or playing. He shows us old videos and photos. Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

There is a lot on the menu in my post today. Reactions to the Iraqi bomber in London, the siege of Adhamiya, stories of exile, a little politics. And Chikitita borrowed a camera this week and took some snapshots of her daily life. I’ll be dotting these around my post for added colour.

By Chikitita:
“No this is not spaghetti! Thanks to this clutter of wires, I’m able to have cold water, access to the internet, charge my mobile phone, and maybe a nap under the noisy fan.”

If you read no other post this week read this one:

Laith saw a sight that he found really funny.

I was in the car waiting for our turn to be searched… when we heard sound of explosions…

The funny things was watching the Iraqi and other foreign officials running towards the bunkers while their bodyguards trying to protect them… I really felt I want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Read the rest of this entry »

[admin]: My long-term girlfriend and I just recently bought a nice 4×2 house in a good area and have been busy moving in, my apology for any unmoderated messages or posts our phone and internet connections have not yet been transferred to the new house.

I could hear the tears she was trying to stifle on my end of the phone. I had nothing to say but we will meet someday, not so sure of course, but I had to say something. My friend is one of those people, to whom the idea of leaving has always been out of the question. Despite the fact that her life was miraculously spared while giving birth to her firstborn under the hardest of times and the fact that she’s been on the receiving end of nonstop sectarian remarks at her workplace and the fact that her husband managed to escape detention, she was so resolved to live the rest of her life in Iraq. The last straw was the attempt on her dad’s life, only then she realized this is no longer home and it was about time to leave. Read the rest of this entry »

She was a writer, an innovator, an activist, an artist, a musician, and the least to say about her that she was someone who could speak English, French, German and Latin fluently.

The 20th of June, 2007, marked another sad day in the modern history of Iraq when Nazik Al-Mala’ikah has died at the age of 84 in Cairo, Egypt. Mrs Al-Mala’ikah is known as the one who revolutionized Arabic poetry in the late 1940s by introducing free verse (or taf’ila) or what formally known as the prose poet. She was born in Baghdad in 1922 from an educated family whom both parents used to write poems and they were distinguished writers at that time. This gave little Nazik the motivation to start writing at a very early age, and when she was in college, her poems and writings were already published in newspapers and magazines. Read the rest of this entry »

Thirteenth in a beautiful series of paintings by Baghdad Artist

Photo of Moon and Planet over Baghdad by Marshmallow26

“To light a candle is much better than cursing the darkness.”

So signed off Ausama on his last video for Hometown Baghdad.

Today I will concentrate my post on reactions to the second bombing of the shrine in Samarra. An event that has provoked much speculation among Iraqi bloggers. The first bombing proved to be a juncture in the ongoing war in Iraq and the second may prove just as critical, so it important to record responses here. That is not all, there is also Iraqi food and if you read to the end, which is the most sectarian blog ever? But first..

If you watch no other video-blog this week watch this one…

My heartfelt condolences goes goes to Ausama for the loss of his uncle. Killed by American soldiers while returning home from the market. We hear of so many accidental killings by American soldiers of Iraqis but no news report ever lets you feel the devastation and anger at such a needless loss. Which is why video blogs like Hometown Baghdad are so critical Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God…

Marshmallow26 after narrowly missing a roadside bomb this week

What can I say? Another week full of essential reads. There is no need for an introduction they are all important and worth reading so let’s begin…

If you read no other blogs ever read this one:

I give up I may as well stop and leave at this point. Sunshine’s latest post has a little bit for everyone - there is just no need to read anything else. Converting olive oil covers into candelabras or turning her kid brother’s slipper into a mobile phone cover (I kid you not); the banal minutiae of daily life; taking exams in a hurry while her father was waiting outside in 46C heat and shooting and shelling happening near her neighbourhood; and answering reader questions. Mr Bennett asked her, “How do you remain so “Sunny” in the face of such terrible things happening around you?” and her answer is one so full of wisdom it should be a lesson to us all: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by MixMax for his blog “Mix Mode” and cross posted to the Olivebranch Network

I don’t want to sound weird with such a title to this post, but I will start with this question: didn’t everyone expect last year when the dome of the shrines in Samara was bombed, that this would happen again?.

I am not getting old nor is my memory betraying me. I still remember the talk by many people on the internet and on TV saying the same location WILL BE targeted again due to its importance and due to its signifance to the Shiite community in Iraq. It is the key ignition for an overall secterian violence.

Well, it happened again! The second thing which became so obvious is about the guards: Last time they arrested a number of people including some who were working as guards for the shrine. I don’t remember how many, but I have never since heard about the conduct of the investigation!

This time again the sabotage took place from inside the holy shrines and we hear the same record playing again of arrests, including a number of people from the guard. Most of the reactions I read on the internet about the situation and what happened yesterday was described in one word “disgusting”. Does this apply to the event or is it that the situation of the Iraqi governement (as protector and servent of the people) has become so disgusting? I am not a military analyst nor a political expert, but if the attack on the holy shrine took place in Samara, why the curfew on the whole of Baghdad?

Allow me to put the question in a different context: why everytime an attack on Samara or Najaf or Karbala or anywhere else a full curfew is imposed on Baghdad? Is this some kind of showing off or is it an act of desperation? Some say it is the gangs of Saddam and al Qaeda who committed this crime, others accuse Iran and others the U.S. because this would ensure their control over Iraq - but what control do they mean? Nothing is under control, ahhh, what they meant is to ensure that all kinds of chaos remain in-tact.

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Either way, whenever I look at the pictures on the internet of the al Askari shrines in Samara without its’ two minerates I always reach the same conclusion and I am sure many others reached the same: The attack proved last time to be the key to a bloody secterian conflict in Iraq, attacking it for the second time would only enrich such a tragedy.

Based on our theory that Iraqis tend to lose interest in everything good or bad so fast, my friend and I were baffled by the fact that the cycle of violence has been on for unbearably long stretches of time.

Based on the same theory, I could not help noticing how people’s reactions have evolved. I have a friend who is always online to brief me on the latest incidents in Iraq, so that I don’t have to watch TV. Following what television reports described as “The Second Black Wednesday” i.e. the bombing of the shrines, my friend, honouring his role to keep me in the know, said some mosques have been torched in retaliation so far and a handful of nameless bodies were found and only recently our national Taekwondo team had their necks cold-bloodedly slit. Trying to snatch some bright sides off the jaws of calamity by comparing today with the first Black Wednesday, apart from the bodies, of course, and the poor players who might have thought that representing a bleeding country in international events could ease some of the pain was not good enough a reason to spare their lives, I said good news you know; no lynching, no mass killings Read the rest of this entry »