Culture & Saddamism...

Culture in Post-Saddam Iraq

by Nimrod Raphaeli
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2007
http://www.meforum.org/article/1707

The culture of a nation embodies its institutions, values, and norms of behavior rooted in history and collective memory. As U.S. and coalition forces work to stabilize Iraq and transform Iraqi society, the nature of Iraqi identity and culture becomes relevant not only to anthropologists and archaeologists but also to policymakers and military officers. While violence might appear to predominate on the television news and in newspapers, beneath the surface there is a vibrant culture struggling to reassert itself.

If asked about their culture, many Iraqis will recall their country's role as "the cradle of civilizations" and claim descent from Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Today, many television commercials and billboards in Baghdad make reference to Iraq's ancient heritage. But modern Iraqi culture is also marked by tribalism and violence. On October 29, 1936, Iraqi general Bakr Sidqi led the first military coup in the Middle East. He was assassinated less than a year later. While military coups became frequent in Middle Eastern states, Iraq set another first when, on July 14, 1958, it became the scene of the first Middle Eastern coup to culminate in the execution of the head of state. Another coup led to the execution of General 'Abd al-Karim Qasim, the 1958 coup leader. Several other leaders subsequently died under suspicious circumstances. After a short-lived 1963 attempt to seize power, the Baath party tried again and consolidated control after a 1968 coup. In 1979, vice president Saddam Hussein deposed the president, General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, who subsequently died from apparent poisoning.Very few Iraqi leaders die of natural causes.

The distinguished Iraqi historian and sociologist 'Ali al-Wardi argues that Bedouin culture formed the bedrock of Iraqi society. Characterizing Bedouin culture, he writes, are three elements: tribalism, raiding, and chivalry. Each of these elements is defined by the concept of taghalub (predominance). The Bedouin individual seeks to persuade by the force of his tribe, his personal strength, and his sense of superiority. Because of a lack of rules to adjudicate conflict, Bedouins use force to avenge transgressions. This, Wardi argues, explains why there is near permanent war in Bedouin society. "War in the desert is the reality; peace is a fleeting phenomenon," he writes.[1]

Writing in Al-Jandul, a monthly Iraqi literary magazine, Hamid al-Hashimi, a professor of sociology at the Europe University in Schiedam, the Netherlands, seconds such theories. [2] Ahmad al-Asadi, a poet born in 1979, also examined the same question. He suggests that Iraqi society is experiencing "an intellectual crisis in terms of structures and the relationship between the individual, the society, and the government" and argues that a tribal mentality dominates. "It is true that we have shifted from a nomadic to an urban lifestyle and from the village to the city, but we [continue] to carry in our minds the rustic and nomadic values," he writes. [3]

Cultural Life under Saddam

Iraqi president Saddam Hussein glorified violence in his efforts to shape Iraqi culture and society. He embraced a curriculum which required high school students to memorize a speech delivered by the seventh-century governor of Iraq, Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf ath-Thaqafi, to dignitaries of Kufa, then the most important city in Iraq. In 694 C.E., Thaqafi warned:

Oh, People of Iraq, Oh, People of Hypocrisy
My name is Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf ath-Thaqafi. When I take off my turban, you will know me
I see heads that have ripened and need to be harvested, and I shall harvest them.

Saddam adopted a model of power which glorified terror. On television, he hugged a father who killed his own son for disloyalty to the president. He politicized culture; the regime suppressed any expression of human creativity not in conformity with the dogmatic and often capricious nature of the regime. Those who violated such prescriptions could pay with their lives. Baathist loyalists oversaw all cultural endeavors. A half-year after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, Sayyar al-Jamil reflected in Az-Zaman, a major Iraqi daily, about how decades of strict control had affected Iraqi culture. He wrote that the centralization of cultural life had "produced chauvinistic enclosure and official, parrot-like dogmatic culture cast in molds prepared in advance in accordance with preordained specifications." As a result, authentic Iraqi intellectuals, novelists, poets, and artists found themselves marginalized for almost four decades. Instead, state-crafted culture bombarded the Iraqi masses with "meager portions of defunct culture, fabricated propaganda, fiery hero-worshiping poems, fancy carnivals and political gatherings in the service of the dictates of the president and the political party."[4] This, in a nutshell, justifies the thesis of Kanan Makiya's The Monument: Art and Vulgarity in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. First published in 1991, Makiya's book depicts Saddam's efforts to link himself with such heroic figures of Islam as fourth Caliph 'Ali bin Abi Talib, his son Hussein, whose murder in the seventh century precipitated the schism between Sunni and the Shi'a, and Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas, an early Arab warrior who brought Islam to Iran. [5]

U.N. sanctions during Saddam's rule also had an impact on Iraqi cultural life, albeit in mundane ways. The sanctions, in practice if not intent, contributed to a shortage of printing material. Before the U.N. sanctions, Iraq imported 100,000 tons of paper per year, but under sanctions, this declined 90 percent. [6] Political isolation and the Iraqi government's own regulations narrowed the ability of Iraqi writers, journalists, and artists to attend meetings outside their country. Those who did leave often did not return. This led to a bifurcation of culture: There was the thaqafat al-kharij (culture of exile) and the thaqafat ad-dakhil (domestic culture). While a sense of Iraqness permeated both cultures, over time, the culture of exile became richer and more critical.

Historically, Iraqis have considered poetry to be superior to playwriting or other literature. This balance reflects a legacy of a tribal tradition that favored spontaneity and public recitation. Often, praise of the ruler was the best way to gain financial rewards. The Saddam regime paid court poets to praise Saddam as a leader who epitomized glory, heroism, generosity, magnanimity, and even prophetic perception of the future.

Saddam's military acumen became a central theme for the home culture. The Iraqi press called the Iran-Iraq war Al-Qadisiya or Qadisiyat Saddam, a reference to the battle in which the Arabs defeated the Persian Empire to Islamize Iran. The Iraqi press used the term umm al-ma'arik (mother of all battles) to designate the heroic stand of Saddam's army against the multinational coalition which expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. It referred to the 2003 war as umm al-hawasum (the mother of decisiveness). All battles became epic, and even defeat became victory.