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RIZGARI, IRAQ - What stood out about a seminar recently held in this northern Iraqi village was that it was largely attended by men wearing noticeably large mustaches.

The facial hair is a feature distinguishing pious followers of the Kakai, a small religious group that has in recent years become a top target for the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Iraq.

The seminar, titled Kakais in the time of Corona, was meant to shed light on the culture and history of the group, as well as the challenges they face in the predominantly Muslim nation.

Followers of the religion say their unique mustache style, which they keep for both traditional and religious reasons, hasin recent years meant certain death for their fellow men as IS used it to identify them.

The group, which believes in reincarnation, is estimated to have as many as 75,000 followers in Iraq.

Al-Qaida and Islamic State terror have taken the lives of 450 members of our people since they came to the area, Kwekha Aziz, a Kakai community leader, told VOA.

You can see all our martyrs buried in the graveyard over there. They hate our religion. They hate it that we dont fast or we dont pray like them," he added.

Most Kakais live in more than a dozen villages dotting oil-rich Kirkuk province, a part of the northern disputed territories where experts say the Iraqi government is struggling to contain a rising IS threat. That area is contested between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north.

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Last year, a suspected IS attack left at least seven Kakai men dead near Iraqs northern border with Iran.

Kurdish officials say increased IS attacks and activities in the region have in recent days caused many Kakais to abandon their villages.

People in the area are panicking and many people in the predominantly Kakai villages have vacated their homes fearing [IS] attacks, Hiwar Rashid, a local Kurdish official in Kirkuk, said Tuesday in an interview with Iraqi Kurdish news site Bas News.

Last week, Sarbast Lazgin, deputy minister of the KRGs peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, told VOA the jihadists were already exploiting a security vacuum in the disputed territories, and he called for stronger cooperation between federal and regional security forces.

In 2015, the KRG created a military unit whose members were all Kakai followers to protect their own areas from IS. Local media reports say the unit has been severely weakened by partisan infighting between the dominant Kurdish parties.

Kakais also complain of lack of political representation in Iraq.

We dont have the size to be able to win parliamentary seats, and other political parties have not attempted to provide a quota for us, like they have done for other groups, activist Ziyad Kakai said.

While it might be easier for IS to recognize Kakai men, the religions female followers say they face their own unique challenges that go beyond terror threats in the conservative society they live in.

Kakai women have many grievances, Samira Kakai, a women's rights activist, told VOA.

They are not allowed [by their families] to go outside on their own. They are allowed to take pictures of themselves but cannot post them [online]. They are allowed to sing only in private, she added.

Kakais are also known as Yarsanis. Most of them identify as being ethnically Kurdish and speak both the Sorani and Gorani dialects of the Kurdish language.

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Local Officials Say Iraq's Kakais, Fearing IS, Are Fleeing Their Villages - Voice of America

This is how the demise of nations occurs: Iraq and Lebanon are inexorably following the path blazed by Yemen and Syria. The fundamental prerequisites for statehood are disintegrating, while those in positions of influence are either unable or unwilling to act. The catastrophic situation facing these nations renders matters starkly simple: Either there are democratic sovereign states, or there is paramilitary anarchy.

The assassination of intellectual and activist Lokman Slim is a tragically timely reminder of what this paramilitary anarchy looks like. Lebanese and Iraqis know all too well what it means to wake up each morning to bullet-riddled bodies along the roadsides. Weapons dont serve the country. They didnt serve me, they cost me my son, declared Lokmans mother at his funeral.

Saad Hariri also understands what this means, having seen his own father assassinated exactly 16 years ago by an immense bomb planted by Hezbollah and Syrian operatives. Four months after his appointment as prime minister-designate, Hariri said last week that no progress had been made toward forming a government. He knows that an effective, technocratic government is Lebanons only path to salvation, but too much time has already been wasted pursuing futile talks with parties that have no intention of forming a government, unless exclusively on their terms.

The shotgun marriage between the parties blocking this deal Hassan Nasrallah, Michel Aoun and Gebran Bassil is rooted both in necessity and in poisonous mutual loathing. US sanctions against Bassil have drawn him tighter into Nasrallahs embrace, even as Aoun and Bassil watched their Free Patriotic Movement Christian support base evaporate in disgust at being shackled to an Iranian proxy dragging their nation towards collapse and conflict. The widely loathed Bassil is a cynical opportunist who would sell his soul to the devil (if he hadnt already done so) to win the presidency. Hezbollah know they cant trust him, but they need him to maintain their stranglehold on the state. These leaders own the collective culpability for pushing Lebanon into the abyss.

In another indicator of how Tehran is dragging Lebanon into its orbit, a deal for Lebanon to receiver 500,000 tons of fuel oil from Iraq has been described by experts as a clumsy ruse for Iran to smuggle oil in violation of sanctions. Lebanons caretaker Energy Minister, Raymond Ghajar, gave the game away when he said: Iraqs heavy fuel doesnt match Lebanons specific needs, but an Iraqi company can arrange a swap. It requires little imagination to guess which neighboring state Iraq will be swapping oil with. Hezbollahs control over Lebanons ports paves the way for larger volumes of Iranian oil to be exported.

Hezbollah and Iran style themselves as Lebanon and Iraqs protectors, when in fact they are the guarantor of these nations imminent destruction.

Baria Alamuddin

Also in Iraq, dozens of activists and journalists have been murdered by Iran-backed militias. More evidencehas emerged that Hisham Hashimi, the counterterrorism adviser to Iraqs prime minister, was assassinated by Kataib Hezbollah because of his investigations into these proxy militias. They have run rings around Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimis efforts to rein them in, demonstrating that in much of the country they are the de facto authorities. This is especially true in provinces along Iraqs eastern and western borders, where they oversee the lucrative trade in licit and illicit goods imported from Iran.

Along the Iraq-Syria border region Iran has constructed massive fortifications, which are frequently the subject of hundreds of Israeli airstrikes in Syria. These fortifications act as a forward base for controlling the borders and exerting control over eastern Syria, notably to transport missiles and munitions for menacing the wider region. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been massacred to secure the hegemony of Irans proxies. There is no longer an entity recognizable as Syria, simply an assemblage of failed statelets dominated by proxies loyal to Iran, Turkey and other powerbrokers.

Another Iran-sponsored militia, the Houthis, launched strikes last week against the Saudi civilian airport in Abha, setting a passenger plane on fire. The attack was clearly intended to cause fatalities. Houthi attacks against GCC civilian targets are becoming increasingly sophisticated, using Iran-supplied drones and missiles, along with mines and explosive-laden boats.

Although Hezbollah and Iraqs paramilitaries are seeking to dominate their respective state infrastructures; the day they achieve this goal would be the end of these nations as we know them. In Lebanon, Israel would never allow the consolidation of a Hezbollah-monopolized state along its northern borders.

Israels military often talks about the current situation as being a war between wars; Israeli strikes against Iran-aligned bases, sabotage attacks and assassinations inside Iran itself, and overflights and border skirmishes these are Israels efforts to postpone a region-wide war, which its generals believe is inevitable. The wholesale disintegration of Lebanon and Iraq, or paramilitary takeovers, would only bring it closer.

Although opposition to Iran has been angrily fermenting within Arab Shiite communities, desperate citizens are often simply grateful to Hezbollah and its allies for providing protection and welfare. They love Hezbollah and believe that Hezbollah loves them back. But Tehran isnt the protector of Shia Islam nor of Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine.

How many times have the Islamic Resistance sat back and watched Gazas citizens being bombed to smithereens? Far from resisting Israel, Hezbollah appears terrified to respond to any of Israels airstrikes and actions. So what even is the purpose of this Islamic Resistance?

To Tehran, these Arab nations under its control are a negotiating card and a military bulwark. The ayatollahs would sell out these states or allow them to be destroyed in a heartbeat if it advanced their interests.

Hezbollah and Iran style themselves as Lebanon and Iraqs protectors, when in fact they are the guarantor of these nations imminent destruction.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

Read more here:
Lebanon and Iraq's choice: Sovereignty, or paramilitary anarchy - Arab News

Nabil Latif Majeed

A panhandler who was born in Iraq was arrested outside a custard store in The Villages.

Nabil Latif Majeed, 59, of Lewis Center, Ohio, had been hanging around outside Ollies Frozen Custard at the Spanish Plaines shopping center at about 8 p.m. Monday when Sumter County sheriffs deputies were summoned to the scene.

When the Baghdad, Iraq native spotted a deputy coming toward him, he began walking out into traffic, according to the arrest report. After Majeed was detained by a deputy, he said he had been looking for food to eat from a trash can. Majeed then used a racial slur, aimed at the deputy.

Ollies Frozen Custard at Spanish Plaines

Majeed was ordered to sit on the sidewalk while the deputy spoke to a representative from Ollies Frozen Custard about the incident. Majeed disobeyed the deputys instruction and got within a foot of the deputy and the Ollies Frozen Custard staffer. When the deputy attempted to handcuff Majeed, he pulled away and refused to cooperate. He also touched the deputys body camera.

Majeed was arrested on a charge of trespassing and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center. He was also banned from Ollies Frozen Custard.

Read more from the original source:
Panhandler from Iraq arrested outside custard store in The Villages - Villages-News

I remember my mother bringing us to the British Museum in London. My mothers family was from Iraq. She brought us immediately to the Assyrian galleries and into the room that had the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal. Theres nothing cooler than being ten years old and learning that this is the first comic book and your people are responsible for it. She turned to us and she said, What is it doing here? Which made us keenly aware that these museums were not just these polite reliquaries for things that have been exchanged amongst cultures that these were violently extracted. It was a museum, but it was also a crime palace.

That is how Michael Rakowitz introduces Haunting the West, the latest short film from Art21. This documentary profile of Rakowitz delves into how he uses his various works to conjure the ghosts of tragedies across West Asia, both recent and historic. The film goes behind the scenes of projects like Nimrud at the Wellin Museum at Hamilton College, in which he used the packaging for food products from Iraq to recreate Room H from the ancient Northwest Palace of Nimrud, and The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, his installation in Trafalgar Square featuring a similar recreation of a lamassu statue that had been vandalized by ISIS.

Ahead of its official release on Art21, Hyperallergic is proud to present the premiere of the film. You can stream it exclusively on this page for the next five days.

Produced by interviewer Ian Forster, the film uses the issues Rakowitz explores to ask harder questions about the value that the rest of the world places on West Asian art, and how to properly redress the many injustices the West has wrought on the region. As Rakowitz says at the end of the film, If were to have conversations about what decolonization truly looks like, its accompanied by repair and its accompanied by accountability. That work is actually something thats never done.

Haunting the West will be available to stream via Art21 on 2/17.

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Original post:
Michael Rakowitzs Recreations of Art Taken From Iraq - Hyperallergic

Mission Context

The French Red Cross (FRC) is operational in Northern Iraq since 2013, especially in Dohuk, Ninewah and Erbil governorates so far; expansion of activities in Babil, Missan, Wassit and Souleymania governorates are currently being initiated. Initially focused on the influx of Syrian refugees, then on the IDP crisis and the challenging displacements and returns of population, FRC provides assistance in a range of sectors including WASH, livelihoods, shelter and relief. Current programming includes WASH (including COVID-19 response), Livelihoods (cash), and Disasters Preparedness and Disasters Reduction whilst opportunities to engage into Health thematic will also be explored in 2021. Mainstreaming of the capacity building of the Iraqi Red Crescent (IRCS) in its daily work is also a main priority.

From May 2020, FRC has begun to change its set up and strategy to align with the Red Cross Red Crescent principles, and play a more active role in all Iraq territory through permanent offices located both in Erbil and Baghdad.

In 2021 the FRC will continue its emergency and recovery assistance for Syrian refugees, IDPs, Iraqi returnees and most vulnerable host communities in the country. This includes in particular for the position of the program coordinator.

Under the supervision of the Head of zone for the Middle East, the Head of Delegation (HoD) will be in charge of FRC teams and actions, especially:

A- Strategy

B- Representation

C- Management of resources

D- Coordination

E- Security

Hierarchical link

Educational background and experiences

Professional skills

Personal skills

The French Red Cross reserves the right to fill the position before the closing date for applications.

The French Red Cross (the President and by delegation, the Director General) processes, as treatment responsible, personal data concerning you for the purposes of the study and treatment of your application. Access to your personal data is strictly limited to authorized persons of the French Red Cross and to our subcontractors to achieve the mentioned purpose. As part of the terrorist financing and money laundering fighting system, any selected candidate may be subject to verification with our CSI Web subcontractor.

Your data will be kept for 2 years after the last contact with you and then archived according to the applicable limitation periods. If hired, your data will be kept for the duration of the employment contract and then archived.

In accordance with the amended law "Informatique et Liberts" of the 6 January 1978 and the General Data Protection Regulation of the 27 April 2016, you have the right to access, rectify, delete under certain conditions, oppose for legitimate reasons your data and to limit the treatment. You also have the right to define guidelines relating to the use of your data and the way in which you wish your rights to be exercised after your death. You can exercise these rights by contacting the HRIS Department at the following address: Carrefour.emploi@croix-rouge.fr

In any case of difficulty, you can contact the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at the French Red Cross headquarters at 98, rue Didot - 75014 Paris or at the following email address: DPO@croix-rouge.fr; you can also file a complaint with the French data protection authority, the CNIL.

Prerequisites

Online training

To be better acquainted with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, we invite you to follow two training sessions online, free and accessible to all. These training sessions constitute a real advantage for your application: WORC (The World of Red Cross and Red Crescent) is an e-learning course on the fundamental principles and operations of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. Its 12 modules address subjects such as the origin and history of the Movement, its fundamental principles, its emblem, the International Federation, the ICRC and national societies. It is dedicated to all profiles: volunteers, employees, members or people wishing to get more information on the biggest humanitarian movement in the world. Stay Safe is dedicated to every staff in a position to carry out international missions on behalf of the Federation or a National Society of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. The course aims at developing a common culture of security management within the Movement in order to enable a better understanding of the main threats and risks for humanitarian actors in the field, and offers solutions to restrain their impact. You will find these lessons on the IFRC Learning Platform open to all by clicking on the following link: https://ifrc.csod.com/client/ifrc/default.aspx

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Head of delegation IRAQ H/F - ReliefWeb