By Baghdadhope
Some days ago AFP agency published an article about the progresses in Mosul as the result of the military operations aimed at cleaning the city by terrorist elements who made of it one of the major poles of violence in the country.
The progresses mentioned concern everyday life plagued by a series of prohibitions and standards of behaviour the population had to stick to - a refusal would mean death – and that found their explanation, by those imposing them, in a strict and fanatical moral or in the respect of the habits and customs in force at the time of the Prophet. Thus, apart from the expected ban on drinking alcohol, in the past always eluded by the use of a certain "discretion", the article cites using electric shavers for barbers, seating men and women at the same table for restaurateurs, even selling ice, unknown in the VII century. There was also a prohibition concerning some vegetables, particularly tomatoes and cucumbers, that could not be put on display on the same stall not to stir up thoughts of sexual nature. This prohibition, based on the alleged sex of the vegetables, appears among the others the more surreal. First, it requires a degree of sexual perversion that certainly - if exists - concerns a tiny percentage of the world population the majority of which certainly does not live in Mosul. Secondly because it is unlikely to think that Mosul citizens, insecure if they could even return home alive after their shopping, would linger in sinful houghts at the greengrocer.
As surreal it can appear this prohibition existed, and in some areas still exists, and was the "cause of death of many women who for it were killed mercilessly" as confirmed from Baghdad to Baghdadhope by the same source who already two years ago had described such prohibitions.
The Article by AFP, in fact, immediately reminded me of a post of June 2006. At that time the prohibition on vegetables was not imposed or my source had forgotten to mention it. But there was another one equally surreal involving air and spare tyres:
Click on "leggi tutto" for the English text of the June 2006 post: "Life in Baghdad.. but is it life"?
Friday, June 09, 2006
Life in Baghdad. But ... is it life?
By Baghdadhope
I speak on the phone with a friend who lives in Baghdad. He is telling me about the latest news. If I didnt’t know that he is not inventing and that there are other similar testimonies, I wouldn’t believe to my ears. Since some time now, to the problems of an absurd reality that bathe Baghdad in blood daily, and much more of what our media tell us, others have been added relating to the behaviours people must stick to and that are reported by an Iraqi blogger. According to Zeyad, this is the name of the blogger, those he calls "radical Islamists" have now taken control, total or partial, of many neighborhoods of Baghdad where leaflets reporting the codes of conduct to keep were distributed. The flyers are not equal in all the districts, and while those circulating in Ghazaliya and Adhamiya contain many directives, in other areas they did not appear, a situation that makes things even more surreal, if possible. * (see the footnote)
How to know to behave?
Let’s try to imagine living according these rules: if we are women we have to use the veil covering our head whenever we leave home, and that although, as Christian, this practice is not in our traditions. We cannot drive and less than ever use mobiles in public, a practice considered as unbecoming. If we are men we will be obliged to wear long trousers, provided that they are not blue jeans, not to shave, not to have pointed beard, not to use hair gel, necklaces or colored shirts. To these prohibitions/impositions concerning the two sexes, are added those concerning all, some of which of difficult interpretation: it is forbidden to sell ice, cigarettes on the street, products of Iranian origin, newspapers, CD and DVD. The street cleaners cannot collect the garbage in some areas and in certain other is prohibited to have an electric generator.
Butchers cannot slaughter in specific dates linked to religion and, could it be missing? Internet Cafe are threatened. Zeyad points out he was not able to find one of these flyers of "instructions" but that, even if it were the classic "urban legend," the murders linked to non-compliance with the rules are real, but that it is in any case more prudent to stick to the new rules. Many times,in fact, fear is worse than reality. I think to the telephones under control in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Until the fall of Iraqi regime every Iraqi reported, or was convinced of, to have the phone under control, and this led to bizarre conversations made of code phrases and readiness in collecting or giving the desired but disguised piece of information. Well, even if the control system was in fact widespread, I do not think it meant an "effective" control of "all" thephones in the country, and on the other hand it would not have been necessary: fear created a sort of "self-censorship" that ensured maximum results with minimal investment.
But let’s return to the rules and to my conversation with my friend in Baghdad.
"Do you want to know the last rule?"
"Come on, tell me"
"You can’t carry the spare tyre when you go around by car"
"Why?" I ask, mentally giving myself the answer concerning the possibility of hiding explosive in it.
"Because if you have the spare tyre it means you don’t have enough confidence in God. If you had it you would know that if it is the will of God you don’t need it"
"??????????????"
"And someone gives another explanation"
"??????????????"
"You can’t carry the spare tyre because the air contained in it is not yours, but of God"
"And whose the air inside the other four wheels?"
A laugh. "Who knows?"
This is life in Baghdad, but ... is it life? In this regard I wish to mention two other pieces of conversation explaining a situation so difficult that is hard even to imagine, and that spread among Iraqis fatalism, wisdom, resignation and even a sort of black humor useful to their mental survival.
We were talking about the daily dose of violence:
Me: “I don’t know how you can live...”
Answer: “How you can say that we 'are' living?"
We were talking about the chronic lack of electricity in a city where during the day the temperature is of 50 degrees centigrade:
Me: "If you could install solar panels you should no longer depend on anyone considering the sun..."
Answer: "If we had solar panels someone would set off the sun by a bomb!"
* There is no direct link to Zeyad's post but it is possible to find it linking to healingiraqblogspot.com and to June 1 2006 post "7th century Baghdad"