iraq: testimonies of conflict: all articles

A TV documentary series about “citizen-soldiers” in Iraq and their families at home is a moving portrait that exposes growing doubts about the war, says Robert W Snyder.

How can western citizens aid people in shattered post-war Iraq? In her first monthly openDemocracy column, Maura Stephens tells a story of fragile solidarity.

Violence and intimidation against women are escalating across Iraq. The world’s commitment is needed to halt this assault on human and democratic rights, says Lesley Abdela.

For this American writer in Amman, Jordan, the nearness of her beloved Baghdad evokes an intense longing to return. But she cannot.

Jo Wilding returns to the besieged Iraqi city with aid supplies, is kidnapped by insurgents, and lives to tell the urgent, compelling story.

A brave and harrowing report from inside the besieged city of Fallujah where ordinary people are trapped in the cross-fire.

In April 2003, the moderate Shi’a cleric Sayyid Abdul Majid Khoei returned to his Iraqi homeland after more than a decade in exile in Britain, and was murdered in the holy city of Najaf. Had he lived, Khoei might have played an important role in political developments in Iraq. Caspar Henderson attended a 2 April event commemorating his life, work and legacy.

The condition of Iraq’s women is a litmus test of the country’s movement towards civil rights and democratic governance. Anita Sharma, who spent ten months in Iraq and Jordan in 2003-04, charts the paths and pitfalls of their difficult journey.

Amidst poverty and insecurity, Iraq’s performers, artists and writers are building spaces of learning and laughter for their country’s street children. Jo Wilding is both participant and privileged witness to the birth of an Iraqi civil society.

A recent visitor to Baghdad talks to influential Iraqis: what remains after dictatorship and manipulation of history, he finds, is a messianic revolutionary spirit in Islamic garb.

The international media is on the road with the US military convoys streaming north towards Baghdad. Back in Kuwait, news photographer Jens Münch takes time to reflect on what kind of democratic model the Arab state truly offers for the future of its Iraqi neighbour.

It is not just that the war on Iraq is illegal, unjust, and immoral. It is also an assault on American democracy and freedom itself. A heartfelt cry of opposition from a now fearful American writer.

How does it feel to be a voluntary human shield in Baghdad, waiting for the gathering storm?

As the American bombardment of Iraq begins, Israel steels itself for a repeat of the Scud attacks of 1991. One resident of Jerusalem's old city reluctantly makes her preparations.