Heritage and Survival: two sides of the same coin for conflict-torn Iraq
After years of exploration and experimentation, an Iraqi-centric approach to nation-building is budding. Instead of being a politicised tool for manipulation, heritage and culture plays a greater role in celebrating local diversity and common experiences.
Al-Hadba Minaret, The Great Mosque of Al-Nuri in acrylic. Artwork belongs to @bashar_art_ and should not be used or printed without permission.
In the Iraqi city of Mosul, novice painter Bashar lifts up his brush and paints vibrant, powerful strokes of red and orange acrylic on a canvas. Growing up in the oldest town within the city, Bashar holds immense pride for the intricate architecture from his ancient heritage. His artworks are heavily influenced by what he praised as the “precision and perfection” of Assyrian sculptors. “Ever since I was a kid, my dad took me to the Mosul Museum …[the] artefacts [were] impressed in my memory”, he fondly recalls. Bashar proudly shares his work on his social media accounts, exploring great mosques and crumbling castles. His ability to do so is quite comforting, since a few years back Iraqi artists were persecuted and lived precarious lives under sectarian extremism.
More than 200 kilometers to the east in Sulaymaniyah city, a class of university students attends an online lesson on practicing Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies. It is part of a series of workshops conducted by the Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH) research centre at Sulaimani Polytechnic University (SPU). Since 2018, the DCH has formed a local cultural heritage network that connects cultural stakeholders from academia, NGOs, policy-making, and local communities. Their goal is to identify best cultural heritage practices. In an interview, DCH director Dr Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin enthusiastically explains that combining technology and cultural heritage to enhance visitor experience in historic spaces is pivotal for Iraq’s higher education: “No one has heard of it, the nature of our education has very siloed thinking, [departments] do not talk to one another.” When she proposed research on digital cultural heritage to the university, colleagues were confused by her futuristic approach. After many seminars and webinars, cross-disciplinary thinking gained traction and the DCH developed from a small group to a whole research centre.
Government incapabilities and failure of international effort
What do the stories of Bashar and Dr Rozhen have in common? They are bottom-up initiatives responding to wider institutional incapabilities. The goal of preservation is urgent. Iraq’s heritage landscape is still tormented by the shadows of prolonged war, terrorism, and cultural suffocation. Internally, years of isolation and war have led to institutional corrosion. There is no long-term agenda in heritage maintenance and reconstruction. An Al Jazeera report reveals that the last citadels of Iraq are crumbling under government neglect. Local initiatives are limited when they have to work within a failing system, especially with competing ethno-nationalist and religious groups which accentuated paralysis. Additionally, the cultural erasure under Islamic State occupation is so severe that experts are still trying to understand the extent of degradation done to Iraq’s cultural inheritance.
Externally, U.S.-European donors have failed Iraqi heritage in two ways. In an interview with University College London (UCL) History Research Associate Dr Mehiyar Kathem, he explains that the majority of U.S. funding is firstly grounded in Judeo-Christian traditions; aid channeled towards Christian groups even in culturally-diverse areas like Niniveh. Secondly, U.S.-European donors are more interested in Iraq’s pre-Islamic civilisation history: “They see places like Babylon, Assyrian and Somar […] as precursors to Western civilisation […] There is no interest in the last hundred years, Ottoman heritage, or even the Persian.” They seek projects that help them understand the Iraqi artefact collections they own in museums abroad. Iraq’s heritage is not some modern accessory or by-gone luxury, it is a political tool. Both the administration and foreign assistance disregarded how local experts and audiences wish for their heritage to be honoured within their society. He laments that “[Iraqis] were very marginalised, very disenfranchised and very weak.”
Then how does the participation of civil society help Iraq? European Union External Action Service (EEAS) policy paper released just last year offers the following justification: “Civil society … [is] independent from religious groups and political party interests,” and “are more likely to work across fragmented geographies in Iraq and be viewed as credible organisations in society.” Individual projects by artists and cultural experts can have a ripple effect across society, by using technology to reach a wider audience, they are actively preserving their ancient heritage in innovative ways. Beyond that, their presence can also change national identity narratives, thereby creating space for reconciliation from past conflicts.
The Nahrein Network and funding the DCH
Based in UCL, the Nahrein Network works to strengthen Iraq and its neighbour’s cultural and heritage infrastructure. They provide grants for projects which primarily aim to “research for impact”. A chance meeting due to a delayed flight led to an exchange of business cards and opportunity for collaboration between the SPU’s president and Eleanor Robson, who oversees the Nahrein Network. Becoming one of the beneficiaries, DCH’s approach in cultural preservation has to be rooted in local socio-economic interests. Dr Mehiyar explains that the network also provides mentoring and support to the funded projects. “[The projects] focus on research, but there are so many other things part of it, like the employment [of locals] …[and] reassessing their own skills and practices.” Almost like a domino, the success from working with Nahrein Network led to expansion and creation of opportunities for more innovative projects – Dr Rozhen eventually joined them as the co-investigator to influence other local experts. She now supervises training and community outreach activities at Nahrein Network’s SPU office.
Nahrein Network uses a sustainable approach towards post-conflict development – one that shines the spotlight on the most affected, yet least considered, local lives. Associating with the various UN’s Sustainable Development Goals such as “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” the network reimagines heritage’s role in Iraq’s post-conflict recovery process. This is done by funding research projects like Dr Rozhen’s - breaking Iraqi experts out from their research silos, and affirming local needs in dialogues around sensitive socio-political matters. Additionally, visiting scholarship schemes raise the profile of existing experts, sending them to the UK for brief training and research. Given the long-term nature of the network’s solution, a viable indicator of success is the sustained support from fellow partners. Funding is sourced via gradual trust-building with other organisations such as the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, and UK government grants such as the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
At the same time, Nahrein Network has a top-down approach to address the local and foreign institutional failures in cultural preservation. Other than providing advice to Iraq’s Ministry Higher Education and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as the network’s coordinator, Mr Mehiyar has also heavily contributed to the aforementioned EEAS policy paper. Collaborating with a policy institute called Chatham House, the paper created greater awareness around sustainable cultural heritage in post-conflict zones like Iraq. Rather than relying on a saviour-complex, the paper enlightens European officials about the value of prioritising Iraqi needs and agency.
When asked if the network is attempting to do too much, Dr Mehiya affirms that the heavy involvement of local stakeholders means that the network is grounded in building long term relationships so they are cons. “We are always ... having this continuous discussion, and debate, and dialogue. It doesn't happen overnight, it's a continuous dialogue.” By bringing local key stakeholders together to address sensitive topics in safe, sustained spaces, they are allowing the ones with the greatest stakes to take the lead towards an inclusive post-conflict cultural environment.
However, the very concept of securing funding is extraordinary to many Kurdish academics. “Very few universities have [academic] writing or even fund-raising capacity”, Dr Rozhen pointed to the US invasion in the 1990s. Sanctions, isolation from the international community, and civil wars within the Kurdistan region - mounting problems stunted the education system. Iraqis became disconnected from global developments in science, education, and technology. For Dr Rozhen, an opportunity arose in the late 2000s. The government initiated the Human Capacity Development Program, which provided thousands of Iraqi Kurdistan students with scholarship support in accredited foreign universities. This allowed Dr Rozhen to widen her capacities as a researcher and return to Kurdistan before starting the DCH.
Inspiration for youths
Dr Rozhen said that the DCH’s workshops have been growing in popularity. So far they have provided three times more training than initially expected, with students from various Iraqi cities and even as far as Greece, Korea and Canada joining them online. The class on AR technology is just one of the many ways DCH is broadening the entrepreneur skill-sets for younger Iraqis, helping them develop a career in the creative industry. Youth-focused solutions are especially important for Iraq, given that the youth unemployment was as high as 25 per cent in 2020.
New challenges viewed as growing pains
On top of adjusting to government incapabilities, unexpected changes have obstructed progress towards the sustainability of bottom-up solutions. Dr Rozhen shares an experience of losing more than half of her team in 2019. According to her, it was due to the ending of contracts and fund reduction from sudden centralisation of universities’ financial matters. She scrambled to search for alternative funding, ultimately turning the dire situation into an opportunity to expand the training of fellow university colleagues. A similar challenge arose for Nahrein Network recently, when the UK Research and Innovation funds announced that its budget is being halved, affecting the GCRF too. Currently, the network is still working out how the cut in funds will affect their plans. The outcome is unclear, but it does show how volatile university funding can be, and that recovery is not a linear process.
Issues surrounding security and stability are consistently covered by major Western and Middle Eastern news agencies. When it comes to the millennia-old heritage, however, the media draws upon depressing themes of neglect, erasure, and destruction. Disillusionment with top-down approaches have led to academics expanding their networks to reach and influence the local communities. Frustrations over poor allocation of resources have led to artists like Bashar rely on social media to bring their frustrations to a wider audience. After years of exploration and experimentation, an Iraqi-centric approach to nation-building is budding. Instead of being a politicised tool for manipulation, heritage and culture plays a greater role in celebrating local diversity and common experiences. It strips away the rigid and violent structures of sectarianism, and offers a more humble outlook into the future of the country, by beginning from the past.
Thank you to Dr Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin, Dr Mehiyar Kathem and Bashar for your rich insights; Judy Faraji for the Arabic interview translations; Hanju Yang for proofreading and the Sojourn 2021 team for your consistent, generous guidance.
This is a solutions journalism article produced as during the 2021 SoJourn write-a-thon. Solutions journalism is investigative reporting on responses to social issues. Learn more about it here.