Blog Post #3
According to Wikipedia, nationalism
is a shared group feeling, taking place in a certain demographical region in
which those people are fighting for independence for its culture and ethnicity
that holds the group together. In this case, Iraqi Nationalism would
essentially be nationalism that asserts that Iraqis as a whole are a nation and
promotes the cultural unity of Iraqis. The people of Iraq promote their culture
and heritage in many different ways, stemming from the recognition of ancient
Mesopotamia, to the movement to independence from ottoman to British
occupation. In Iraq, there are two main variants. One variant views an Iraqi
nation as involving Arab and Kurdish people as having common Mesopotamian
heritage. The second variant is a dual nationalism combining Iraqi nationalism
alongside Arab nationalism, where nationalism for matters including Iraq and
Arab issues would be involved together.
Two important historical and iconic
figures of Iraq were a Babylonian ruler and a Kurdish Muslim ruler, both of
which can be attributed to being nationalism faces because of the crusades.
Iraq has had issues with nationalism in the past decade or so because of
dictatorship and conflict. When the country was ran by Saddam Hussein for
instance, he believed in dual nationalism and that the recognition of the
ancient Mesopotamian origins and heritage of Iraqi Arabs was complementary to
supporting Arab nationalism.
Inequality is definitely a factor
in Iraq when it comes to women and men’s rights. Women in Iraq have suffered equality
issues for years. Making up a vast majority of the Iraqi population today, they
are an important part of the culture. Although they are a huge part of society,
they have been persecuted against, usually because of outbreak of war within
the country.
This inequality problem plays a
role in every day life as women have lost many rights, especially after the
most recent invasion of Iraq in the early 2000’s. The UN states that in the
1980’s Iraqi women enjoyed more basic rights than other women in the region.
After years of dictatorship, sanctions, and conflict, especially war, has created
a steady decline in women’s status. Educational and employment opportunities
are two huge issues that show the inequality of gender in Iraq. Another
statement from the UN says that women in Iraq represent one of the most
vulnerable segments of the populations and are generally more exposed to
poverty and food insecurity as a result of lower income levels.
Women in the education system have
been a long-term fight for equality, as the ratio of boys to girls according to
UNICEF and the government are almost .20 away from even. The inequality of the
schooling system in Iraq is getting better but is still a current issue that
needs to be faced with. The main inequality issue that many people blame the
collapse of Iraq is income.
Income inequality in Iraq plays a
vital role in the many people living without basic needs. This widening of
income though, comes with the fact that conflict has been in abundance in Iraq
for the last decade. According to an article written by Rebecca Burns, Women’s
status in society is much worse. It is stated that when Saddam was in power,
people had many objections, but the laws did grant some basic women’s rights;
but after the “liberation”, laws have changed. Now, the Iraqi constitution has
a new article that says Iraqis are free to choose what kind of law under which
they lead their civil lives. In a simple sense, life for women has always been
a struggle for basic equality and will continue to as long as there is conflict
within the region. Continuous occupation of Iraq will also see effects in equality
because of how securitized every sector is, leaving citizens faced with
everyday struggles like the income and gender inequality.
Bibliogrpaphy
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