Iraq still waits for desired reform a year after October uprising

Shaimaa Yahya

In a country floating on a sea of oil, the Iraqi people suffer from devastation and the lack the most basic living rights, which worsen year after year, pushing the people to boil and become fed up with the worsening conditions and the escalation of the oppression by the malicious Iranian hands interfering in Iraq’s domestic affairs.

Last year, Iraq witnessed large popular protests following the deterioration of the situation in the country and the corruption of the political class that had refused to achieve social justice for the people. The protests were the largest since 2003 and reached their climax in the streets in October, when more than 600 demonstrators were killed and many more wounded.

October uprising

Iraqi activists called for marches in various cities on Thursday, October 1 to commemorate the first anniversary of the outbreak of the bloody protests that swept the country in October 2019.

Many activists coordinated calls for marches in various governorates, heading to cities’ central squares to commemorate the first anniversary of the October uprising against the political class and to commemorate the lives of the more than 600 who were killed and thousands who were wounded during the protests, following their success in pushing the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi to resign.

The mass protests were met at the time by gunfire by the security authorities, but the situation did not calm down for days and then exploded again at the end of that month, but taking another course. The protests were able to force then-Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to resign and to change the election laws that had allowed the political class to control the country’s powers for years.

Iranian influence

Iran’s influence was one of the most important reasons that shaped the poor conditions in Iraq and added difficulties to the people’s lives due to Tehran’s malicious interference in Iraqi affairs, in addition to the spread of corruption within the ruling class.

Angry demonstrators burned Iran’s consulate in the city of Najaf, and Iraqis accused the militias loyal to the Iranian regime of targeting the demonstrators through assassination campaigns and organized kidnapping.

The assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 helped ease the protests in Iraq due to the severe tensions between the United States and Iran, which reached the level of clashes between them, including striking military bases and retaliatory responses.

Kadhimi’s plan

After the resignation of Abdul Mahdi’s government, Iraq faltered from attempts to form a new government, but political forces eventually agreed to choose intelligence head Mustafa al-Kadhimi as prime minister in May.

Now, the Kadhimi government faces great challenges to solve the country’s crises and to make some adjustments in order to fix the damages left by the previous government, which had led to the deterioration of many industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors.

On the anniversary of the October uprising, Kadhimi tweeted, “This government came on the basis of the road map imposed by the movement, grievances and aspirations of the Iraqi people, and we affirm our loyalty to our people and to the roadmap imposed by the blood and sacrifices of their vanguard youth. We were and still are loyal to the October movement and its lofty outcomes, and we have worked since the first day on the undertakings of the ministerial curriculum, starting with identifying and sorting the martyrs and the wounded, which is the natural path for restoring their rights and honoring their national position, and then turning that into a legal investigative context that guarantees the restoration of the rights of those involved in Iraqi blood.”

Feeble promises

Many demonstrators see nothing new and that most of their demands have not been achieved, such as fighting corruption and improving living conditions, which have not witnessed any tangible change. The World Bank expressed the possibility of Iraq’s poverty rate doubling to 40% this year, in addition to the rise in youth unemployment, which is currently 36%.

Kadhimi announced that early elections would be held in June 2021, which is one of the most prominent demands of the demonstrators. Last August, the authorities employed hundreds of youth in the Ministry of Defense, but it is clear that this step was not sufficient to stop sit-ins among those demanding jobs.