Iraq suicide blast kills up to 32 at hall

The bomber, a relative of the host, targeted Sunnis and Shiites attending a reconciliation lunch.
By Anthony Shadid and Saad Sarhan
The Washington Post
Posted: 01/04/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber sneaked through the back door of a crowded hall where guests had gathered Friday for a reconciliation lunch at the invitation of a tribal leader, killing as many as 32 people and wounding dozens more in the worst attack in Iraq in weeks.

Iraqi officials said the assailant, a relative of the host, was a familiar presence around the house, making it easier for him to pass unsearched through an entrance usually reserved for women. Once inside the hall in the conservative town of Yusufiyah, about 12 miles south of Baghdad, he detonated explosives that he had strapped around his waist, said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry.

Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, a spokesman for the provincial police, said 32 people were killed and 70 wounded. But in the confused aftermath of the attack, there were discrepancies in the toll. Atta said 23 people were killed and 42 were wounded. The U.S. military said initial reports, based on local sources, put the toll at 23 killed and 32 wounded.

The attack marks the worst in Iraq since a suicide bomber killed 57 people at a Dec. 11 meeting of Arab and Kurdish leaders who had gathered to discuss ways to reduce tensions in the contested northern city of Kirkuk. A car bombing in Baghdad on Dec. 27 killed at least 22 people.

Ahmed said Friday's gathering was convened to foster reconciliation between Sunni and Shiite tribes in a region once so violent that residents had nicknamed it the Triangle of Death. The Sunni tribal leader who hosted the lunch, Mohammed Abdullah al-Qaraghouli, was among the wounded, Ahmed said, but his injuries appeared to be light.

The area south of Baghdad, with a combustible mix of tribes and religious sects, was once one of Iraq's most dangerous. But as in much of the country, except for the troubled region around the northern city of Mosul, violence has dropped markedly the past year, though attacks like Friday's have shattered any pretense of enduring calm.

Tribal leaders, especially those who have chosen to turn against the insurgency, have frequently been targeted.

Preparations for provincial elections on Jan. 31 have stepped up across the Arab regions of Iraq, promising to recalibrate political power in the country for the first time since the last elections were held in 2005. No vote will be held in the northern, predominantly Kurdish regions.

Many in the country expect violence to escalate in the competition over the vote, with traditional Sunni parties losing influence to groups such as the Sons of Iraq and rival Shiite parties jockeying for influence in Basra and the southern provinces of the country.

TOLL IN IRAQ SUICIDE BOMB RISES TO 35 DEAD

Female bomber kills 35 outside Baghdad shrine
04 Jan 2009 10:06:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Female suicide bomber kills 35 at Shi'ite shrine

* Most casualties are pilgrims from Iran

BAGHDAD, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded 65 in an attack on pilgrims entering a revered Shi'ite shrine in northwestern Baghdad on Sunday, the Iraqi government said.

The blast struck a checkpoint outside the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad, as Shi'ites prepared for the Ashura holiday this week marking the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

Most of the casualties were pilgrims from Iran, security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said.

"A woman wearing an explosive vest managed to reach one of the security checkpoints near the revered Kadhim shrine and exploded herself among a crowd of pilgrims," he said in a statement.

He gave an initial death toll of 35 killed and 65 wounded. Iraqi security sources said at least 38 people had died.

U.S. forces in Iraq came under an Iraqi mandate on Jan. 1 in step with a bilateral pact that will require the withdrawal of the 140,000 U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

As the United States reduces its activities in Iraq, local forces are taking greater responsibility for security.

Almost six years after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, violence has dropped dramatically from the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007. But militants regularly stage suicide bombings such as the one that shattered the calm in Baghdad on Sunday and other attacks.

Twenty-five people, including women and children, were killed in a blast at a taxi and bus station in the same neighbourhood on Dec. 27.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites will visit the holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad throughout the Ashura week to mark the death of Hussein, one of the most important events in the Shi'ite calendar.

In 2004, more than 150 Shi'ite pilgrims were killed in coordinated suicide strikes on shrines in Baghdad and Kerbala during the holiday, attacks which heralded the sectarian fighting that consumed Iraq over the next few years. (Editing by Tim Pearce)

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BAGHDAD, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed seven Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded 25 who were entering a revered Shi'ite shrine in northwestern Baghdad on Sunday , a source in the Iraqi army said.

The explosion took place at a checkpoint outside the Imam Moussa shrine in Kadhamiya, a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad, as Iraqi Shi'ites prepared for the important Ashura ceremony later this week which marks the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

Source: Reuters
TOLL IN IRAQ SUICIDE BOMB RISES TO 22 DEAD, 40 WOUNDED -IRAQI ARMY SOURCE

-

QUOTE (according to an undercover agent with the Interior Ministry)
The latest attack took place at about 11:30 a.m. as a man dressed in a long black winter coat stuffed with explosives stepped into a crowd of Iranian pilgrims about to enter the golden-domed shrine in Kadhimiya and detonated his load, , according to an undercover agent with the Interior Ministry who was at the scene but spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"He was stuffed with explosives," the official said.

How brave and determined are Iranians who traveled to Baghdad via Diyala region despite knowing that Salafis are massacring Kurdish and persian type Iraqis in the region. I think they should be buried in Kazmain.

The suicide bomber struck meters from Bab al-Qibla, one of the four doors leading into the courtyard of the shrine, where two of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam are buried.

QUOTE (Mahdi Khosroabadi @ 50, a pilgrim from Tehran)
Mahdi Khosroabadi, 50, a pilgrim from Tehran, was close by when the bomber struck. He described the mayhem that ensued. Bodies and limbs were strewn everywhere. He recalled a young girl in tears standing over the bodies of her family.

"Why do they tell us to come, why?" he asked. "Security is still very bad."

After the attack, Iraqi policemen closed the road leading to Bab al-Qibla and prevented everyone including pilgrims and journalists from passing.

Kadhimiya and other shrine sites had been completely cut off to vehicle traffic for kilometers, and pilgrims were subjected to several security checks including a patting-down before they reached the shrine.

A group of women not far from the scene were baffled at how the attacker had penetrated the security cordon. One even insinuated that the security forces had been bribed.

"An Iraqi is blowing up Iraqis," she said. "Money has blinded everyone."

Saheb Karim, a resident of Kadhimiya, blamed loyalists of the former regime - who they say believe that Shiites have usurped power - for the attack.

One of the pilgrimage organizers in Kadhimiya, who gave his name as Sayyed Hassan, said he was shocked and disappointed with the performance of the Iraqi forces charged with protecting the area who had given him and other community leaders assurances.

"We were collecting limbs with our own hands," he said.

Most of the casualties were taken to the nearby Kadhimiya hospital, where an official confirmed that 16 Iranians were among the dead.

In the hallways, distraught and tearful Iranians, who spoke no Arabic, were communicating in signs with the hospital staff to inquire about loved ones.

Might is right

Following his eighth visit to the Whitehouse, criminal Ariel Sharon stated that Bush is the best friend Israel has ever had in the Whitehouse. Bush has stood by Israel despite being kicked in the teeth on a number of occasions. On one occasion he ordered the Israel tanks out of Ramallah and in response the Israelis moved their tanks from the suburbs to the centre of the town. His worst experience came when the Israelis sabotaged Bush plan for a Palestinian state and continued building more settlements and roadblocks undermining ‘Moderate’ Mahmoud Abbas.

In reality, Jews dictate US Middle East policy. Israel has been protected from condemnation by US veto whenever it violated international law. About 80% of all US vetoes cast in the UN Security Council were to protect Israel.

‘The unbalanced resolution’ that refuses to condemn the Palestinian victims as well as the Israeli criminals became the norm cited by successive US representatives to the UN.

Arabs must understand the USraeli logic ‘of might is right’ and recognize that peace will only come from the barrel of a gun. What is taken by force must be retaken by force, no matter how long it takes.

It seems that Ehud Barak is reluctant to commit his ground troops for an all out attack on Gaza without being sure of the consequences. He wants to seriously consider the French proposal for a conditional ceasefire. Encouraged by the Egyptian and Saudi support, Tizipi Levini is vehemently opposed to it and wants the ground force to move on Gaza. Yehud Barak suspects that Hamas may be keeping some surprises for the troops as their rejection to extend the truce was very suspicious. No military commander in his right mind, including assassin Barak, is willing to send his troops to densely populated Gaza as it will end up with a real mess. Many believe that the Israelis bloody defeat in Lebanon will be a Sunday picnic in comparison with what they will get if they ever dare to invade Gaza.

Against Lebanon in 2006, the Israelis tried the air attacks with all the destructive weapons the US has rushed to them but failed to dent Hezbullah ability to launch rockets. When the ground attack was launched, they found Hezbullah fighters waiting for them. The same thing will happen in Gaza. It is better for the Israelis to abandon their current rogue status and implement 39 UN Security Council Resolutions they are in breach of. Israel is a small country in our midst. Sooner than later they will get if they continue their current Nazi-style practices.

In America Jewish fraudsters the likes of Bernard Madoff are being chased. In the Middle East, Jewish Nazi Genrals are being accused of war crimes. It seems that one Hitler was not enough.

The Israeli Nazi Generals haven’t learned their lessons yet and are apt to repeat their past mistakes. Their arrogance is being fed by the unlimited support from America and its allies and from the massive stockpiles of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction But as America has found in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli experience in Lebanon, future wars will not be fought against regular armies but against popular armed resistance.

While Saddam army has collapsed in less than three weeks (from 20.03 to 09.4.03), the Iraqi popular resistance is on-going costing the Americans 4219 deaths, over 40000 wounded and close to $12 billion a month. In 1982, the Lebanese army didn’t offer any resistance to Israeli invasion. But it was the national Lebanese resistance, led by Hezbullah, which forced the Israelis to leave with a bloody nose; that was repeated in 2006.

The arrogant Israelis believe that peaceful negotiations mean weakness and surrender. The PLO didn’t get far after recognising Israel. Its chairman, late Arafat, was poisoned and the infrastructure of the Palestinian authority was destroyed by Sharon. Mahmoud Abbas who likes to make suspicious deals behind closed doors was built by the USraelis as the peaceful and moderate man whom they like to deal with. Naturally, the Israelis continued to build a separation wall annexing more territories, to expand settlements and to increase the number of road blocks. That is at the time when moderate Abbas continues to be invited to the White House or to having dinners with Olmert. But Abbas' complete failure on every level sent the Palestinians to elect Hamas and to support its program of armed resistance. There is no peaceful way of forcing the Israelis to abide by the 39 UN Security Council Resolutions that they are in breach of.

All the Jewish Goebels have failed in their campaign to blame Hamas for the on-going massacres in Gaza by Israel Nazi Generals. Blaming Hamas may be equated with blaming the inmates of Nazi concentration camps for Hitler massacres. Instead of isolating Hamas as the latest campaign intended to do, people from Indonesia to Mauritania are burning the USraeli flags and denouncing the Jewish Nazi massacres in Gaza. In Iraq the Americans are spending $300 million a month on close to 30 News media and Internet sites in order to polish the image of their brutal occupation. But all efforts went in vain when an Iraqi journalist, Al-Zaidi, threw his shoes at the American Hitler. The Israeli massacres in Gaza have tainted all Jews, implicated the Americans and their prostrated Arab allies in government, made heroes of Hamas fighters and exposed the real face of Israeli Nazi Generals.

Hamas is a national resistance movement fighting a Jewish Nazi war machine. It depends on a hit and run tactics. They are currently awaiting the Israelis to come close, the way Hezbullah waited for the coward Israeli SS in July 2006. Try to move on Gaza and see where Ismael Hanniah is hiding.

Despite all the sanctions and military bombardments the Palestinains have built Gaza and the Westbank. The Jews made an industry out of the Holocaust and are currently fleecing Americans. Let the Americans impose sanctions on Israel and see how many Jews will be left in Palestine.

Indirect financial support to Israel comes from the Jewish-controlled Hollywood to the Jewish-dominated Wall Street and Media. That is in addition to $2.8 billion given in direct aid by the US government. In reality a family of four Israelis receive close to $5000 per year from the US. Furthermore, many joint programs are financed by US universities and corporations sponsoring sebbatical leaves for US scientists to spend time in Israel developing the various high-tech industries including the production and testing of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Finally, the defunct Lehmann Brothers and Goldmansachs have raised billions for Israeli industries and state bonds. We hope that the current US economic meltdown will bankrupt Israel forcing Jews to go back to where they come from.



Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

Muslim families removed from AirTran flight get apology

Nine passengers were questioned after teens overheard their chatting about airline safety. The FBI cleared the U.S. citizens but the airline refused them passage.
By Cynthia Dizikes
January 3, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- After helping deliver the District of Columbia's first baby of 2009, Dr. Kashif Irfan boarded a flight to Orlando, Fla., with his wife, three children and other relatives to participate in a weekend retreat on the peaceful practice of Islam. But instead of taking off as scheduled, Irfan and his family were suddenly ordered off the plane, detained in the airport and refused passage by the airline after they were cleared by the FBI.

"I was thinking, 'What could we have possibly done to render us liable to this form of treatment?' " said Irfan, a U.S. citizen born in Detroit.

The handling of the Irfan family, after comments one of them made about airline safety aroused suspicions of two teenage passengers, caused an uproar Friday among Muslim Americans.

Orlando-based AirTran Airways apologized to the family. It said it refunded their airfares, agreed to reimburse them for replacement tickets they bought on US Airways after they were refused passage Thursday, and offered to fly the passengers back to Washington free of charge.

"We apologize to all the passengers -- to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight," the airline said in a statement. "Nobody on Flight 175 reached their destination on time on New Year's Day, and we regret it."

The airline called the incident a "misunderstanding," but added that the steps that were taken were necessary to ensure security and safety.

The Irfan family was boarding Thursday when Irfan's wife made a comment about the safest place to sit on the plane, according to Irfan's brother Atif, who was also on the flight with his wife and wife's sister.

"It was a very lighthearted conversation about the safest spot of the plane," said Atif, 29, who is a lawyer in Alexandria, Va. "But, I guess, these two teenage girls had gleaned from our conversation that we were going to try and take over the plane."

That conversation caused the eight family members and a friend, who was also traveling to the conference, to be escorted off the plane and questioned by FBI agents. Federal officials removed the rest of the passengers, did a sweep of the aircraft and then re-screened everyone before allowing the flight to depart about two hours behind schedule.

The Irfan brothers said Friday that they thought they had been profiled based on their appearances. The men had beards, and the women wore head scarves.

"We are Muslim Americans, and we fly a lot. So we understand there is a lot of scrutiny on us in the first place," Atif said. "But we consider ourselves to be model citizens. We were born here; we went to high school and college here. It was appalling to know that this type of stuff can happen to you."

Even after the FBI cleared the family and their friend, AirTran refused to book them on another flight.

In an earlier news release Friday, the airline said that one of the passengers became irate and made inappropriate comments and had to be escorted away from a gate by local law enforcement.

Irfan disputed that contention. He said no one was escorted from the gate.

"My wife was perhaps irritated but was in no way hostile," Irfan said. "She was very upset that despite being humiliated on the plane, and despite being cleared, we were not going to be allowed to reschedule our flight. That was the last straw, she just couldn't hold her feelings back anymore of being treated like a second-class citizen and having her civil rights trampled on."

Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, called the situation unusual.

"I find it highly unlikely that a Caucasian family [in the same situation] would be subjected to the same type of treatment," Al-Qatami said. The Irfan brothers are of Indian descent.

In recent years, other Muslim travelers have faced similar problems. In 2006, an Iraqi human rights activist was made to remove a shirt reading "we will not be silent" in English and Arabic before he was allowed to board a plane in New York. The same year, six Muslim imams were escorted off a US Airways flight in Minneapolis after they prayed together in Arabic.

The Irfan family incident prompted the Council for American-Islamic Relations to file a complaint Friday with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

But the Transportation Security Administration said the proper protocol had been followed. After passengers are cleared for travel it is up to the airline to seat them, TSA spokesman Christopher White said. "The pilot ultimately has the authority of who flies in his or her aircraft," White said.

cynthia.dizikes@latimes.com

Hosay or Tadjah

is a West Indian street festival, in which multi-colored model mausoleums are paraded, then ritually offered up to the sea, or any body of water. Some contemporary writers equate the multi-colored mausoleums with "mosques."

In British Guiana, now Guyana, the festival was called Taziya or creolized into Tadjah in reference to these floats, the most visible and decorative element of this festival. In nineteenth-century Trinidad newspapers as well as government reports called Hosay the "Coolie Carnival."[1]

The Hosay (derived from Husayn or Hussein) celebration is a Caribbean manifestation of the Shia Muslim Remembrance of Muharram in Trinidad and Tobago[2] and Jamaica[3] (where is it spelled Hussay). The name Hosay comes from "Husayn" (also spelled "Hussein", the grandson of Muhammad) who was assassinated by Yazid in Karbala. This marytrdom is commemorated in the festival. In Trinidad and Tobago it is primarily celebrated in Saint James, in northwestern Trinidad and in Cedros in southwestern Trinidad. Recently it has been revived elsewhere.

In the 1950s, very elaborately decorated models of mosques made of paper and tinsel called "tadjahs" were carried through the streets to the accompaniment of constant drumming. Small fires were lit in the gutters beside the streets over which the drumskins were heated to tighten the drumskins of the tassa. Mock stick fights celebrate the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. The festival lasts three days ending with the throwing of the tadjahs into the sea at sunset on the third day. Although Hosay is a religious event for Shias, all of Trinidad's religious and ethnic communities participate in it, and it has become accepted as part of the national culture.

The Remembrance of Muharram was brought to the Caribbean by Shia Muslim indentured labourers and other migrant laborers from India. Hindu and Muslim Indians, who emphasized their common culture and celebration over religion, namely from the provinces of Oudh and City of Lucknow, are essential to this story. These people entered Guyana in 1838, and Trinidad after 1845, from colonial India under British auspices (see Indo-Caribbean people). The first observance of Hosay in Trinidad has been traced back to 1854, eleven years after the first indentured laborers arrived from India.

In the 1880s the British colonial authorities became increasingly concerned about public gatherings, and in 1884 issued an ordinance to prevent the public Hosay commemorations. Thousands of workers, who had spent the year building their tadjahs joined a Hindu named Sookhoo, in petitioning the government to allow the festival per their agreement with the Governor, who was visiting London during this episode. When all appeals were ignored by the Protector of Immigrants, through ignorance of the new July 1884 prohibition, defiance, or both, the tadjahs were taken onto the streets at the appointed time, and in order of the estates. The first estate that took its tadjah onto the street had earned that right over the past months, and in some towns, Hosay went ahead.

In Port-of-Spain (St. James) the police did not interfere, but in Mon Repos, San Fernando, on Thursday, October 30, 1884, buckshot was fired into the crowds of women, children and men.. After shots were fired by the police to disperse the procession, 22 "Indians" were killed immediately. Later, 120 were found with injuries, some of whom had run into the cane fields, to hide during the police attack. That day is commonly referred to in Trinidad history as the Muhurram Massacre[citation needed] by Indians and as the Hosay Riots in British and colonial records.

The North Indian city of Lucknow and the Indian State of Oudh are more important than the Middle East in understanding this Trinidad public celebration. The Caribbean East Indian festival, "Hosay" (or "Muhurram") came to the Americas from India in the early nineteenth century. It remained a pan-Indian phenomenon (meaning crossing religious, racial and linguistic lines). Hosay reached out to also include other Trinidadians, African and Creoles. The origins of Muhurram in Persia (Iran) are important, but in Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica, the street festival is broader than a Shi'a Muslim (or sectarian) commemoration of the lives and deaths of Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandsons, Hussein and Hasan. The pious shouting out of these names, "Hussein" and "Hasan" allowed the conflation of the Indian names with that of the festival, but provided a direct connection to these role-models for ordinary (and downtrodden) Trinidadians.

In Trinidad, Indian Muslims and Hindus, and African co-workers, joined in the street parade that was open to white spectators also. Many revelers and spectators failed to see the spiritual side of this ten-day observance, especially the nine days of fasting and prayer that preceded the street celebration on Ashura, the tenth day. (In 1990, this social scientist interviewed Mr. Harry in Tunapuna, Trinidad, a Hindu who fasts throughout the ten days of the first month, Muhurram of the Muslim Calendar, while preparing for the street parade.)

Indeed, Hosay was transformed by and for the plantation workers: the deaths of Hussein and Hasan symbolized their own exile and sacrifices in a harsh, sometimes socially desolate landscape, of new worlds and socieites. The colonial authorities came to see the Hosay as a threat and used massive force to quell it and keep it off the streets beginning in the 1880s. With the onset of struggles for independence since the Second World War, many East Indians (Indo-Trinidadians) and fellow Creoles have again broadened the appeal of this Trinidad festival. It has survived colonialism and efforts at suppressing its unique voice for all workers, free and bonded, and their descendents in Trinidad.[citation needed]

There are similarities and differences in the history and current meanings of Hosay across the Caribbean. Judith Bettelheim is a leading scholar of the Muhurram or Hosay festival, and she helped the Smithsonian Institution put together a display of the Tadjahs in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s.

References

1. ^ Specifically, Trinidad Sentinel 6 August 1857. Also, Original Correspondence of the British Colonial Office in London (C.O. 884/4, Hamilton Report into the Carnival Riots, p.18
2. ^ Korom, Frank J. (2003). Hosay Trinidad: Muharram Performances in an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-3683-1.
3. ^ Shankar, Guha (2003) Imagining India(ns): Cultural Performances and Diaspora Politics in Jamaica. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin pdf

* Mendes, John. 1986. Cote ce Cote la: Trinidad & Tobago Dictionary. Arima, Tinidad.


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History of Ta"zieh in Iran
By: Freydoon Arbabi
http://www.tebyan.net/index.aspx?pid=27497&KEYWORD= Hassan Khomeini




Ta"zieh had reached its peak during the

Qājar era, especially during the reign of Nasser-edin Shah. However it has been declining ever since to a vanishing point. Except for an occasional performance at a remote village, Ta"zieh has all but disappeared.
The associated term

aza darÌ (=mourning) also refers to commemorating the Karbala event, by recounting story of martyrdom, but without theatrical representations. These are solemn and tearful events designed to bring salvation to the believers by shedding tears for the martyred Imam. The two types of events ta"zieh and aza dari had been conducted in parallel or in consort. Whereas ta"zieh is all but forgotten, the latter has increased in frequency after the Iranian (Islamic) revolution. This is because aza dari does not employ any image making or stimulating, which is considered sacrilege by many religious scholars. The portraiture and sculpture of both men and animals are prohibited by Islam. It may be because fighting idolatry was Islam’s main aim. It should be mentioned, however, that at the height of ta"zieh a well known religious leader, Ayatollah Qasem Ghomi, testified (fatva) that there was nothing wrong with ta"zieh performances.
Unlike the Greek and Indian cultures that developed advanced forms of theater, for some unknown reason theater did not take root in Iran before Islam. In modern times a form of popular theater,

Rou Howzi, usually comedy, was performed at weddings and circumcisions. Another type wasNaghali (=story telling), which consisted of reciting the epic poems ofShahnameh at tea houses.
The purpose of this article is to review the origins and history of ta"zieh, its characteristics, and the role of Persian music in it. It is concluded with a sample ta"zieh, that of Qasem which seems to have all the elements of drama.


History
Commemoration of the Karbala events appears to have started during theBuyids (Ale Buyeh). Ale Buyeh have their root in Daylaman, Northern Iran. At the weak point of the Abbassid Caliphs they rose against them and ruled from Baghdad.They used azadari as a means of exciting the Shi’a communities and organizing them against the Sunni rulers. The declaration of Shi’a as the official religion of Iran by the Safavids in the 16th century had a similar purpose of organizing the country against the Sunni Ottomans.
The form of ta"zieh, that is commemoration of a martyr in Iran, goes much farther back to the pre-historic era. Two prominent stories, Kin’e Siavash and Zarer, show similarities to that of ta"zieh.

Siavash is sent by his father Kaykavus, king of Iran, to fight Afrasiab of Turan. When Afrasiab agrees to a peace treaty favorable to Iranians, Siavash sends word to his father suggesting cease fire. However, because of the intrigues of his step mother, who does not want him returned, Siavash is ordered by Kaykavus to reject the peace treaty. Siavash is disillusioned and disheartened and seeks refuge in Afrasiab’s camp. However he is eventually killed by Bidarafsh, the wily brother of Afrasiab. The news of Siavsh’s murder makes the Iranians including their hero Rostam very sad. Rostam is said to have stood in mourning for a week. Eventually Siavash’s murder is revenged, but a song commemorating his death is said to have been sung until the Iran invasion of Mongols.
The term rozeh khani was first coined by Molla Hossein Va’ez Kashefi, who published a book in the 16th century, titled Rawzat al-Shohada, or the garden of the martyrs. Ta"zieh khani was a synonym. Later,

during the Qajar era, the term ta"zieh was specifically used to refer to the enactment of the story of Karbala, as a religious theater.
Iran is the only place that ta"zieh, the theatrical form was performed. This may be partly due to the influence of the West during the Qajar era, and partly because Iranians were more lax about religion than most other Moslem countries. In pre-Islamic period also religious tolerance had its ups and downs. Kourosh and Yazdgerd III were examples of tolerant leaders, while Darius and Anushirvan were examples of intolerance.







Takieh Dowlat, interior without cover

Ta"zieh was mainly conducted in halls called

Takieh. The best known and the most elaborate takieh in Tehran was that ofDowlat, an extravaganza building constructed during Nasser-edin Shah. It uses the same plan as Albert hall in London that Nasser-edin Shah had brought back from his trip there. In fact Mostowfi, a writer of the period, states that Nasser-edin Shah’s aim was to use the hall for Western Style Theater. When the religious leaders objected it was used for ta"zieh. Many foreign travelers to Iran during this period have commented about ta"zieh. For example Edward Brown, professor of Eastern Literature at Cambridge University, and author of the authoritarian book“a Literary History of Persia” in his book, “A year Among Persians’” describes a ta"zieh that he saw in Iran.
Originally the term takieh was used by the

sufis for the tomb of their leader. The actual tomb, ghabre khajeh (Pious man’s tomb), was constructed as a platform, raised a few feet in the middle of a hall. Such a platform can be seen at Menar Jonban, in Isfahan, which houses the tomb of a Sufi, Amu Abdollah. The followers of the sufi leader visiting his tomb performed their rituals at takieh.
Ta"zieh had also borrowed from Christian passion plays, or Cross Stations, such as those taking place in Guatemala today. The similarity can also be observed in religious ceremonies, or passion plays called

sineh zany and zanjeer zany (= chest beating and chain beating) that take place today. The former groups beating their chests with their hands, and the latter their backs with a chain set.

Style of Ta"zieh
Because ta"zieh audiences were intimately familiar with the story plot and convinced of the innocence of the protagonists, Imam Hossein and his entourage, and certain about the guilt of the antagonists, Shemr, Bin Sa’d and Yazid. Thus, it is not possible to judge ta"zieh and ta"zieh writing by Western methods of theater critic. That is, ta"zieh has its own style which seems to work with its special audience. The writers of ta"zieh had many restrictions, not the least of which was their own belief in the righteousness of the Imam and the guilt of the villains of Karbala. That is these writers were openly biased. Therefore they de-emphasized the role of the antagonists and enhanced that of protagonists.

An interesting story
Another aspect of this prejudice was the disdain with which the protagonists spoke to the antagonists, and also the antagonists spoke to each other, and even about themselves recognizing their own position of being in the wrong. In an article published at the Shiraz Arts Festival of 1967, M.J. Mahjub recounts an anecdote from a city in the Caucuses where a group of Shi’as was trying to organize a ta"zieh. However, they could not find anyone to play the role of the main antagonist, Shemr. Eventually a Russian laborer agrees to do it for a fee. His role is to stand near a tub of water, representing the Euphrates River, preventing Imam Hosein’s people from approaching the water. The children and other companions of the Imam try to approach the water, but the Russian keeps them away. However, when Imam Hosein himself, played by a dignified old man, approaches the water the Russian hesitates to intervene. The director of ta"zieh shouts that he should not allow him near the water. "Oh, let him drink," replies the Russian, "he is an old man." This incident not only does not appear funny to the audience, but is the more proof of cruelty of Shemr. Because, they think, even this unbelieving Russian had mercy on the Imam, while the real Shemr did not show any mercy at all at Karbala.





Costume and Prop
Intimate familiarity of the audience with the story plot, their belief in the infallibility and righteousness of the Imam, their conviction of the savage behavior of the villains, and the power of their imagination, renders the need for prop and costume, for setting the mood, redundant. Only symbolic pieces of prop and costume were therefore used in most ta"zieh s. Only the ta"zieh s performed during the reign of Nasser-edin Shah at Takieh Dowlat were somewhat of an extravagant affair with props, costumes, and decor, including tents and horses. In general the protagonists" costumes were green, or black, the colors used by the descendents of the prophet. While the antagonists, especially Shemr and Bin Sa’d wore red or at least hung a red cape over their street clothing. Incidentally, Takieh Dowlat has been the largest amphitheater ever built in Iran.

Ta"ziehs were usually written in the form of poetry and were chanted in carefully selected Persian musical keys. Most of this poetry was very simple and no great work of art. It was mainly dialogue between the individuals enacting the story. It is noteworthy that the role of women was also played by men who chanted in a soprano voice emulating women’s voice. At the height of ta"zieh, when audiences included dignitaries and foreign delegations, Amir Kabir, the able prime minister of Nasser-edin Shah, commissioned Reza Esfahani, a well known poet of the period, to compose some ten ta"zieh s. These were to be simple enough to be understandable by the masses while sufficiently sophisticated not to be boring to the educated public.






Music and Ta"zieh
Ta"zieh has been one of the means of preserving the classical Persian music (radif). Although no formal study of ta"zieh music has been undertaken, references have been made in some books, e.g. Religious Music of Iran, by Hassan Mashhun and History of Iran"s Music, by Ruhollah Khaleghi and My notes on Music, by Abol-Hasan Saba.
The question of legitimacy of music in Islam was raised again after the revolution in Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini had a few fatvas (judgments) in this regard the last of which,

as part of an eight item fatva, was finally declaring Persian music legitimate.
The term

gusheh used to refer to pieces of classical Persian music appears to come from ta"zieh as discussed above. Some radif pieces such as Rak-e Abdollah, which was sung by Abdollah, the nephew of Imam Hossein, during ta"zieh, have gotten their name from ta"zieh.

Musical Instruments and Modes
The musical instruments used in ta"zieh are primarily those of the battle field in the middle ages, such as trumpets and drums. As ta"zieh s became more sophisticated cymbals, horns, and clarinets were added. Gradually a carefully developed system was used taking advantage of the classical Persian music, with the variety of moods its pieces could invoke. Music that had been frowned on in Iran since the Safavids era, found more interest under Nasser-edin Shah (1848-1896). He appointed Agha Aliakbar Farahani to the position of chief musician, and also established the position ofMir Azaa, or director of religious music. The latter chose music for and organized the singing of ta"zieh performers. They used gushehs of classical Persian music with some subtlety so that the audience was unaware of it. A version of this music, now known as radif of Persian music, was passed down through Mirza Abdollah, Agha Alikbar’s son, and has been documented in recent years.
The seven

dastgâhs and fiveAvazes (sub-dastgâhs) of radif music appear to have evolved sometime after the last golden era of Persian music, during the Abbassids dynasty. Excellent musicians and theoreticians of that era, Farabi, and Safi-edin Urmavi had laid the foundation of the Persian music based on a set ofmaghams, a specific series of note intervals, or modes. Since each mode produces a specific mood, musicians started to combine these modes to produce pleasant combinations that would not startle the audience or jarring their ears by abrupt changes of mode. Eventually the system of dastgâhs was developed with a set of gushes or pieces. In a dastgâh the transition from one gusheh to another takes place in such a subtle and smooth way that the audience is often unaware of the change.
Mir Azas started using elements of radif music in ta"zieh. Young, valiant men, such Ali Akbar and Qasem, and Abbas sang in

Chahargah before heading off for battle. Chahargah is a dastgâh with an upbeat mood. It had traditionally been used inZurkhanehs (Persian Gymnasiums), to set the mood of the athletes and the audience during work out and before wrestling matches. For the more tender moments of lamentationdastgâh Segah orAvaz Esfahan was used. The somber, dignified and serious mood of Imam Hossein was depicted by dastgâh Nava, the reflective mode favored by the sufis. As an example in ta"zieh of Moslem (one of the characters at Karbala) Imam Hossein recites in Nava, while Moslem responds inMahoor, another upbeat mode. It is interesting to note that these two dastgâhs selected for the latter interaction, while different, are not drastically dissimilar as to make the transition from one to the other unpleasant. In fact Nava bears some similarity toRakand Aragh, two gushehs of Mahoor.
In general each character of the entourage of Imam Hossein was assigned a dastgâh or a gusheh according to the degree of melancholy its role required. Abbas, the brother of Imam Hossein, who was killed while trying to fetch water from Euphrates River for the thirst starved family, sang in Chahargah.

Hurr, the young Umayyad commander who was sent to fight Imam Hossein, but joined him, and was the first casualty of the war, sang in Aragh. Abdollah, the teenage nephew of Imam Hossein, sang inRak. A version of Rak in dastgâh Mâhoor is now called Rak-e Abdollah. Zaynab, the sister of Imam Hossein, sang in Gabri or in gushehs ofDashti. As mentioned earlierin ta"zieh the role of women was played by men, who sang in a high pitch in order to simulate women’s voice. It may be worth mentioning that azan, the piece chanted for calling Muslims to prayer is usually inruhol-arwah, a gusheh of Bayâte Tork, although at times it is also sung in Bayate Kord.




Different Ta"ziehs
At the height of ta"zieh performances a large number of ta"ziehs were composed. Enrico Cherulli, Italian ambassador to Iran during the 1950’s, collected over a thousand different ta"ziehs, which are kept at the Vatican Library. This collection includes some interesting mystic or Sufi ta"ziehs as well, such as Majles of Mansur Hallaj. Hallaj is one of the most interesting sufi figures who crusaded all his life for the down trodden folks. He was hung by Muslem zealots for his belief of unity of being, and the ability of humans to reach godliness. Another Sufi ta"zieh is titled Shamse Tabrizi and Jalal-edin Rumi. The latter reconciled Sufism with Islamic beliefs.
Another collection is one with 260 ta"ziehs at the

Library of Majles in Tehran. There are documentations and discussions of ta"zieh. Ta"zieh titles include,ta"zieh of Ali-Akbar, Imam Hasan, and ta"zieh Shahr Banu. Shahr Banu, daughter of Yazdgerd the third, the Sasanid king during the Arab invasion, is said to have been taken as a prisoner (slave) when Arabs overran Tisfune, the Sasanid capital. Subsequently she was married to Imam Hosein. Many of ta"ziehs are variations of one another. Nevertheless, there is a significant number of independent ta"ziehs.

Gusheh
The popularity of ta"zieh led to some variations of it. These so called gushehs were often performed before the main ta"zieh for warming the audience. They were performed at a corner of the hall. This may be the reason for the term gusheh (corner). Such pieces may depict the story of a more minor figure in the Karbala events such has Hurr, or Qasem.Sometimes they included stories other than those of Karbala, such as Yousef (Joseph) and Zolaikha. The story of Zolaikha trying to seduce Joseph and when he refuses her advances she blames him for trying to seduce her. Because victimization of innocent in this story bears similarity to those of Karbala it was appealing to the audience. A similar story is Abraham trying to sacrifice his son Isaac to show his devotion to God. In this case a lamb is sent by God as a substitute sacrifice, and loyalty of Abraham is not compromised. Other popular gushehs are Ta"zieh of Imam Ali and The Death of Prophet Mohammad.


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Hosay

Hosay or Tadjah is a West Indian street festival, in which multi-colored model mausoleums are paraded, then ritually offered up to the sea, or any body of water. Some contemporary writers equate the multi-colored mausoleums with "mosques." In British Guiana, now Guyana, the festival was called Taziya or creolized into Tadjah in reference to these floats, the most visible and decorative element of this festival.



In nineteenth-century Trinidad newspapers as well as government reports called Hosay the "Coolie Carnival."[1]

The Hosay (derived from Husayn or Hussein) celebration is a Caribbean manifestation of the Shia Muslim Remembrance of Muharram in Trinidad and Tobago[2] and Jamaica[3] (where is it spelled Hussay). The name Hosay comes from "Husayn" (also spelled "Hussein", the grandson of Muhammad) who was assassinated by Yazid in Karbala. This marytrdom is commemorated in the festival. In Trinidad and Tobago it is primarily celebrated in Saint James, in northwestern Trinidad and in Cedros in southwestern Trinidad. Recently it has been revived elsewhere.

In the 1950s, very elaborately decorated models of mosques made of paper and tinsel called "tadjahs" were carried through the streets to the accompaniment of constant drumming. Small fires were lit in the gutters beside the streets over which the drumskins were heated to tighten the drumskins of the tassa. Mock stick fights celebrate the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. The festival lasts three days ending with the throwing of the tadjahs into the sea at sunset on the third day.

Although Hosay is a religious event for Shias, all of Trinidad's religious and ethnic communities participate in it, and it has become accepted as part of the national culture.

The Remembrance of Muharram was brought to the Caribbean by Shia Muslim indentured labourers and other migrant laborers from India. Hindu and Muslim Indians, who emphasized their common culture and celebration over religion, namely from the provinces of Oudh and City of Lucknow, are essential to this story. These people entered Guyana in 1838, and Trinidad after 1845, from colonial India under British auspices (see Indo-Caribbean people). The first observance of Hosay in Trinidad has been traced back to 1854, eleven years after the first indentured laborers arrived from India.

In the 1880s the British colonial authorities became increasingly concerned about public gatherings, and in 1884 issued an ordinance to prevent the public Hosay commemorations. Thousands of workers, who had spent the year building their tadjahs joined a Hindu named Sookhoo, in petitioning the government to allow the festival per their agreement with the Governor, who was visiting London during this episode. When all appeals were ignored by the Protector of Immigrants, through ignorance of the new July 1884 prohibition, defiance, or both, the tadjahs were taken onto the streets at the appointed time, and in order of the estates. The first estate that took its tadjah onto the street had earned that right over the past months, and in some towns, Hosay went ahead. In Port-of-Spain (St. James) the police did not interfere, but in Mon Repos, San Fernando, on Thursday, October 30, 1884, buckshot was fired into the crowds of women, children and men.. After shots were fired by the police to disperse the procession, 22 "Indians" were killed immediately. Later, 120 were found with injuries, some of whom had run into the cane fields, to hide during the police attack. That day is commonly referred to in Trinidad history as the Muhurram Massacre[citation needed] by Indians and as the Hosay Riots in British and colonial records.

The North Indian city of Lucknow and the Indian State of Oudh are more important than the Middle East in understanding this Trinidad public celebration. The Caribbean East Indian festival, "Hosay" (or "Muhurram") came to the Americas from India in the early nineteenth century. It remained a pan-Indian phenomenon (meaning crossing religious, racial and linguistic lines). Hosay reached out to also include other Trinidadians, African and Creoles. The origins of Muhurram in Persia (Iran) are important, but in Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica, the street festival is broader than a Shi'a Muslim (or sectarian) commemoration of the lives and deaths of Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandsons, Hussein and Hasan. The pious shouting out of these names, "Hussein" and "Hasan" allowed the conflation of the Indian names with that of the festival, but provided a direct connection to these role-models for ordinary (and downtrodden) Trinidadians.

In Trinidad, Indian Muslims and Hindus, and African co-workers, joined in the street parade that was open to white spectators also. Many revelers and spectators failed to see the spiritual side of this ten-day observance, especially the nine days of fasting and prayer that preceded the street celebration on Ashura, the tenth day. (In 1990, this social scientist interviewed Mr. Harry in Tunapuna, Trinidad, a Hindu who fasts throughout the ten days of the first month, Muhurram of the Muslim Calendar, while preparing for the street parade.) Indeed, Hosay was transformed by and for the plantation workers: the deaths of Hussein and Hasan symbolized their own exile and sacrifices in a harsh, sometimes socially desolate landscape, of new worlds and socieites. The colonial authorities came to see the Hosay as a threat and used massive force to quell it and keep it off the streets beginning in the 1880s. With the onset of struggles for independence since the Second World War, many East Indians (Indo-Trinidadians) and fellow Creoles have again broadened the appeal of this Trinidad festival. It has survived colonialism and efforts at suppressing its unique voice for all workers, free and bonded, and their descendents in Trinidad.[citation needed]

There are similarities and differences in the history and current meanings of Hosay across the Caribbean. In Jamaica, many Christian African-Jamaicans participate alongside Indian-Jamaicans in Hosay. In the past, every plantation in each parish celebrated Hosay while today it has been rebranded an Indian carnival and is perhaps most well known in Clarendon where it is celebrated each August.

Judith Bettelheim is a leading scholar of the Muharram or Hosay festival, and she helped the Smithsonian Institution put together a display of the Tadjahs in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s.

History of Euphrates

Eu·phra·tes (yū-frā'tēz)

A river of southwest Asia flowing about 2,735 km (1,700 mi) from central Turkey through Syria and into Iraq, where it joins the Tigris River to form the Shatt al Arab. Its waters were a major source of irrigation for the flourishing civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.



Definition: River that was a boundary of Mesopotamia, or the "land between the rivers" (Tigris and Euphrates) The Euphrates was the western of the two rivers and flowed from a source deep in the Armenian mountains all the way to the Persian Gulf, almost 1,800 miles. Both rivers served as means of defense and trade for every civilization in this area.

Islamic prophecies
In Islam, some of the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad, suggest that the Euphrates will dry up, revealing unknown treasures that will be the cause of strife and war.

*Soon the river Euphrates will disclose the treasure [the mountain] of gold. So, whoever will be present at that time should not take anything of it. — Sahih Bukhari.

*The Prophet Muhammad said: "The Hour will not come to pass before the river Euphrates dries up to unveil the mountain of gold, for which people will fight. Ninety-nine out of one hundred will die [in the fighting], and every man among them will say: 'Perhaps I may be the only one to remain alive'." — Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim.

*The Prophet Muhammad said: "The Euphrates reveals the treasures within itself. Whoever sees it should not take anything from it". — Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi `Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 28.

*It [the Euphrates] will uncover a mountain of gold [under it]. — Sunan Abi Da'ud.







The Euphrates provided the water that led to the first flowering of civilization in Sumer, dating from about the 4th millennium BC. Many important ancient cities were located on or near the riverside, including Mari, Sippar, Nippur, Shuruppak, Uruk, Ur and Eridu. The river valley formed the heartlands of the later empires of Babylonia and Assyria. For several centuries, the river formed the eastern limit of effective Egyptian and Roman control and western regions of the Persian Empire. Also, the Battle of Karbala occurred at the banks of Euphrates river, where Imam Hussain, along with his family and friends, were martyred.

As with the Tigris there is much controversy over rights and use of the river. The Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey involves the construction of 22 dams and 19 power plants by 2005, the biggest development project ever undertaken by Turkey. The first of the dams was completed in 1990. Southeast Turkey is still struggling economically, adding fuel to the discontent expressed by Turkey's Kurdish minority centered there. The Turkish authorities hope that the project will provide a boost to the region's economy, but domestic and foreign critics have disputed its benefits as well as attacking the social and environmental costs of the scheme.
In Syria the Tabaqah Dam (completed in 1973 and sometimes known simply as the Euphrates Dam) forms a reservoir, Lake Assad that is used for irrigating cotton. Syria has dammed its two tributaries and is constructing another dam. Iraq has seven dams in operation, but water control lost priority during Saddam Hussein's regime. Since the collapse of Ba'ath Iraq in 2003, water use has come once again to the fore. The scarcity of water in the Middle East leaves Iraq in constant fear that Syria and Turkey will use up most of the water before it reaches Iraq. As it is, irrigation in southern Iraq leaves little water to join the Tigris at the Shatt-al-Arab.


The Marsh Arab community of Dhi Qar Province, Southern Iraq, has been systematically marginalized throughout recent history. After the First Gulf War (1991) Saddam Hussein aggressively revived a program to divert the flow of the Tigris River and the Euphrates River away from the marshes in retribution for a failed Shia uprising. The plan also systematically converted the wetlands into a desert, forcing the Marsh Arabs out of their settlements in the region. Less than 5% of the marshes remain today although they are returning: and now soil salinisation is presenting real problems in managing agriculture and providing livelihoods for families returning from exile in Iran The region is marked by political instability, environmental uncertainty, high unemployment and dependency on rations. This has had a disastrous impact on children in the region: increased malnutrition, rising infant mortality, increased exposure to violence and limited scope for hope for the future.


Ancient map







Tigris River



Definition: River that was a boundary of Mesopotamia, or the "land between the rivers" (Tigris and Euphrates) The Tigris was the eastern of the two rivers and flowed from a source deep in the Armenian mountains all the way to the Persian Gulf, about 1,200 miles. Both rivers were the lifeblood of Mesopotamian civilizations, giving them water and a vehicle for their trade and defense.

The original Sumerian name was Idigna or Idigina, probably from *id (i)gina "running water",[1] which can be interpreted as "the swift river", contrasted to its neighbor, the Euphrates, whose leisurely pace caused it to deposit more silt and build up a higher bed than the Tigris. This form was borrowed and gave rise to Akkadian Idiqlat. Either through a Persian intermediary or borrowed directly from Akkadian, the word was adopted into Greek as Tigris.
In Pahlavi, tigr means "arrow", in the same family as Old Persian tigra- "pointed" (compare tigra-xauda), Modern Persian têz "sharp", Kurdish tij "sharp" (hence the variants in Dicle). However, it does not appear that this was the original name of the river, but that it (like the Semitic forms of the name) was coined as an imitation of the indigenous Sumerian name. This is similar to the name Persian name of the Euphrates, Ufratu, which does have a meaning in Persian, but is still modeled after the Sumerian name Purattu.
Another name for this watercourse, used from the time of the Persian Empire, is Arvand; today, the name Arvand refers to the lower part of the Tigris (ie. the Shatt al-Arab) in Persian.
The name of the Tigris in different languages that have been important to the region.

‘Idigna’ in Sumerian
‘Idiklat’ in Akkadian
‘Hiddekel’ in Hebrew
‘Dijla’ in Arabic
‘Dicle’ in Turkish
‘Tigris’ in Latin









Two types of native boats were used on the Tigris River and Shatt al Arab, a round skin boat (skins stretched over a frame of willow branches) known as a coracle (Arabian = Quffa, Akkadian = Quppu) and a rectangular raft type known as a riverboat (Arabian = Kelek, Akkadian = Kalakku). The coracles principally go downriver but riverboats can be poled or towed upstream. With proper rigging, riverboats can also be sailed and rowed.

Like the Euphrates, the course of the lower Tigris has meandered and changed over the years. In ancient days, the Tigris either flowed where the Shatt al Gharraf is today, or the Tigris had a branch that flowed down the Shatt al Gharraf or, possibly, the Shatt al Gharraf started as a manmade canal through the marshes and the Tigris overflowed into it. The sites of the ancient cities of Girsu and Lagash are located on today’s Shatt al Gharraf.

Iraqis Take Control, but Bridge Remains Off Limits

December 31, 2008, 2:35 pm

By Abeer Mohammed
14th July Bridgein Baghdad in 2003. (Photo:Marwan Naamani/Agence France-Presse)

BAGHDAD — For years the Green Zone has kept most Iraqis out some of the most impressive buildings, palaces and monuments in Baghdad. As a journalist, I feel lucky to have special access to these structures — especially when I go across 14th July Bridge into the Green Zone.

Passing over the bridge now brings back good memories of going to college at the University of Baghdad in Jadariya before the war began.

Adel al-Ardawi, an Iraqi historian, said: “This bridge held much of the traffic in Baghdad when it was opened during the former regime, but now it lies inside the Green Zone.”

The 14th of July Bridge spans the Tigris River and connects Karada Sharqiya (east Baghdad and the Green Zone) and Karadat Mareim (west Baghdad and the Red Zone). The name of the bridge refers to the day in 1958 that Iraq’s King Faisal was overthrown in a military coup. Brig. Abdel Karim Kassem became Prime Minister Kassem and construction of the bridge, which had been conceived under the king, finally began. The prime minister would not live to travel across it. Abdul Salam Arif, who helped lead the overthrow the king only to fall out of favor with the prime minister, returned from exile in 1964 and killed Mr. Kassem. In Prime Minister Arif’s first year in power the bridge was finally completed.

“It is the only suspension bridge in Baghdad”, said Mohammad Jwad, a civil engineer. “But Baghdadis have forgotten about it. It is now part of Green Zone which seems to be in another country; not in Iraq.”

The bridge was damaged in the first Gulf War, but I would travel across it daily. The American military briefly shut it down for repairs after they invaded Baghdad, reopened it in a lavish ceremony and then promptly shut down again after a suicide bombing a few weeks later. For most Iraqis it has remained that way unless they possess a badge issued by the Americans.

It seems unfair that my fellow Iraqis are not allowed on the bridge and are cut off from their past. Tomorrow the Americans will hand over formal control of the Green Zone to Iraqis. Although American and Iraqi troops are expected to continue joint patrols of the 14th of July Bridge, the span will remain off limits for now to most Iraqis.