The World from PRX

Iraq

The exterior of the Ancient Church of the East in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2023.
Language
A newly launched news channel in Iraq tries to preserve the ancient Syriac language
Salah Fareeq Al-Feroun's farm sits unattended without the necessary water to cultivate Iraq's signature anbar rice, Al-Meshkhab, Najaf Province, Iraq, Aug. 30, 2023.
Food
Iraq’s signature anbar rice is disappearing amid water shortages
people with boat
Environment
Parts of Iraq are drying up, impacting already vulnerable communities
Ayyad Mohmmed Ali works on his farm where he grows date palm trees and vegetables, Iraq.
The Big Fix
This startup is fighting to keep Iraq’s palm trees alive
Young men chat near Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023.
Conflict & Justice
Young Iraqis reflect on the US-led invasion, its aftermath and their hopes for the future
Iraqi cellist and conductor Karim Wasfi leads a performance at the National Theatre in Iraq, Baghdad, March 11, 2023.
Music
Iraq’s revived art scene is helping to heal the country’s wounds
President George W. Bush declares the end of major combat in Iraq as he speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast. But the war dragged on for many years after that.
Critical State
Citizen pain: Part II
Fighters from the Saraya Salam (Peace Brigades) loyal to influential Shia Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr deploy in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 30, 2022.
Instability in Iraq has created a ‘culture of fear,’ experts say
Fishermen navigate on the Shatt al-Arab waterway during a sandstorm in Basra, Iraq, Monday, May 23, 2022.
Environment
‘It’s a mass ecological crisis’: Extreme weather in Iraq hits those already struggling the hardest
Samira Abbas, whose activist son Ehab al-Wazni was assassinated in May, attends a demonstration in Karbala on Nov. 18, 2021, with other women protesting the impunity Iraqi activists face.
Violence
Iraqi mothers risk it all to bring justice for their slain activist sons
President Joe Biden waves towards the White House balcony in Washington
Top of The World
US, Canada and Mexico to hold talks at the White House
Iraqi Security forces close the heavily fortified Green Zone as they tightened security measures hours after the assassination attempt on the prime minister in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. 
Violence
Drone attack on Iraq’s prime minister raises concerns of more violence
Passengers wait to board a plane for New York at the Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris
Top of The World
US opens borders to fully vaccinated travelers from a list of countries
American Village entrance gates on the outskirts of Erbil, Iraq, the Kurdish defacto capital.
Military
Kurds grapple with US troop drawdown in Iraq
White-gloved hand holds ancient artifact known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet.
Culture
Iraq needs to reclaim its cultural past to develop its future, art historian says
Children play in a mud puddle in the section for foreign families at Al-Hol camp in Hasakeh province, Syria on March 31, 2019.
Displacement
Thousands of children are stranded at a camp in northern Syria. Who will repatriate them?
A large, beige building
Foreign policy
US Embassy closure in Iraq would hand Tehran a ‘strategic victory,’ says former Iraqi amb to UN
A general view of the Grand al-Nuri mosque during its reconstruction, in the old city of Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2020.
Conflict & Justice
Documenting ISIS’ crimes is daunting. Coronavirus makes it even harder.
Iraqi young volunteers spray with disinfectants to combat an outbreak of coronavirus during a curfew imposed by Iraqi authorities, in the old city of Mosul, Iraq, March 15, 2020.
Education
Online learning is a big struggle in formerly ISIS-controlled Mosul
A poster depicting the former government adviser and political analyst Husham al-Hashimi, who was killed by gunmen, is seen in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, July 8, 2020.
Global Politics
Iraqi security expert’s assassination in Baghdad has left many in shock
Iraqi flags wave behind a group of men in parliament
Conflict
Iraqi MP calls for peace ‘without using Iraq against Iran’
The ruins of a bombed base in Iraq.
Conflict & Justice
US responds to deadly attack at Iraq base
A group of people dance in a dark room.
Arts, Culture & Media
Dance parties return to Baghdad
Hadi Jasim was an Iraqi translator for the US military. Now he's a "global guide" at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.
Arts, Culture & Media
This Philadelphia museum hired Iraqi and Syrian refugees as tour guides for its Middle East gallery
On Memorial Day: Stories of Trauma, Survival and Renewal
Full Episode
Wealth In America: What Is It? And Who’s Got It?
Full Episode
Iraqi supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Sairun coalition celebrate after results of Iraq's parliamentary election were announced in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 14, 2018.
Populist cleric Sadr all but wins Iraq election
Arts, Culture & Media
Now Playing: The Art of War
Arts, Culture & Media
Iraqi Metal
Arts, Culture & Media
Baghdad Gallery
Arts, Culture & Media
The Bluesman of Baghdad
Arts, Culture & Media
The Band Plays On
Arts, Culture & Media
Iraqi Boy Band
Arts, Culture & Media
The Iraq War, On the Road
Arts, Culture & Media
Bulletproof Baby Gear
Arts, Culture & Media
Veteran Stories
Arts, Culture & Media
Do the Golden Globes Have a Glass Ceiling?
Arts, Culture & Media
Suzanne Opton’s Soldiers
An aerial view of Baghdad, Iraq March 4, 2018.
Conflict
Fifteen years after the US entered Iraq, Baghdad breathes new life
A displaced Iraqi woman, who fled from clashes between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants, in Mosul, Iraq
Conflict
ISIS has found a new, deadly use for human shields in Mosul
Angry Town Hall Meetings, Sex Offender Rights, Seeking Out the KKK
Full Episode
Iraqi fiction writer Anoud recently moved to New York.
Books
2017 feels almost as strange as this writer’s dystopian vision of Iraq in 2103
Dr. Chalak Berzingi poses with his wife, Dr. Mayada Issa, and his daughter, Seher Berzingi.
Global Politics
This Iraqi doctor made his home in Trump country
A US soldier of the 2nd Platoon Charlie Troop, 3rd Squadron of 61st Cavalry Regiment questions a man with an interpreter (R) while on patrol with Iraqi National Police in a suburb of Baghdad, March 7, 2007.
Justice
Iraqi translators who served the US military are desperate for an exemption to Trump’s travel ban
Nouhad was sold to an ISIS fighter when she was 16.
Conflict
This Yazidi woman escaped her ISIS captors in Mosul, but had to leave her infant son behind
A group of Mosul exiles set up al-Ghad radio station to reach people in their city under ISIS control. The station manager says it's also helping people in the city communicate with one another.
Media
This Iraqi radio station reaches people in Mosul who risk their lives to call in
An Iraqi police officer uses the device to inspect a car at checkpoint in central Baghdad, Iraq, 2010.
Business
These bomb detectors were proved phony years ago, yet they’re still used in the Middle East
President Obama announces complete withdrawal from Iraq by year’s end
Violence returns to Iraq as America plans withdrawal
Mourners react during a funeral of a victim who was killed in a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad, during the funeral in Najaf, south of Baghdad, Iraq, July 3, 2016. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Conflict
Baghdad just suffered Iraq’s worst terror attack since the US-led invasion, and we’ve already forgotten
Dissecting the Chilcot Report, Texting 911, and the Modern Protest Music
Full Episode
The Human Toll of the Baghdad Bombing, Reaching Jupiter’s Orbit, and Inter-partisan Marriages
Full Episode
Ferguson’s First Black Police Chief, the Fight to Retake Fallujah, and Zoos’ Ethical Questions
Full Episode
Dana Maghdeed Aziz holds up the identification issued to him by the Germany government.
Conflict
Some Iraqi refugees who made it to Europe are choosing to return home
Aviation ordinancemen organize 1000 pound MK-83 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs on their racks on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in this archival photo taken in the northern Persian Gulf March 18, 2003.
Conflict
The US is dropping bombs quicker than it can make them
An employee works at strengthening the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq, in February 2016.
Conflict
Mosul Dam could be scarier than ISIS
Ibrahim Esmael Ibrahim at the train station in Idomeni, Greece. As a teenager, he worked as a translator with the US military in Iraq.
Conflict
An Iraqi translator for the US military is now stuck in Greece
Vets Push for Change as PTSD Becomes a Weapon
Full Episode
The immediate aftermath of a coalition airstrike on Syria in October, 2015.
Conflict
The US is killing more civilians in Iraq and Syria than it acknowledges
For decades, a visa waiver program has allows passengers from 38 countries to visit the US without advance approval for 90 days or less.
Conflict
A clampdown on a US visa waiver program might spark unintended consequences