Solidarity with the Iraqi people and the country’s intellectuals!

Solidarity with the Iraqi people and the country’s intellectuals!
08/12/2010
Stop the present vicious attack on democratic, civil and cultural rights in Iraq

By a group of Iraqi intellectuals


Iraq has recently witnessed a vicious onslaught on basic democratic and cultural rights, in grave violation of the Iraqi Constitution, orchestrated by a number of provincial councils, including the capital Baghdad.

It has been reported today (8 December 2010) that the Ministry of Education is to prohibit the teaching of theatre and music at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. According to this report, statues and works of art at the entrance of the Institute are also to be removed. No explanation has been given for this decision, but some students believe that the pretext is religious.

But this is not an isolated incident. One most serious attack recently has been the closing down by security forces, on orders from the Baghdad provincial council, of the Iraqi Writers’ Union social club in central Baghdad. The provincial council took a decision on 26th November 2010 to close down all nightclubs, based on an infamous decree made by Saddam Hussein’s Revolutionary Command Council (No. 82, 1994) and it is still in force! That decree, issued by the dictatorial regime, was part of the so-called “Faith Campaign” launched by Saddam Hussein, using a religious pretext, in a desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling and isolated regime.

The president of Baghdad provincial council, Kamel al-Zaidi, has tried to justify this act as being part of moves by the council to close down nightclubs ‘that do not possess proper licences, and in response to public complaints’. He has even issued threats of further action against intellectuals organising protests.

In recent months, during the political crisis around the formation of a new government, repressive measures were taken also in other provinces. The provincial Council of Babil, just south of Baghdad, took the decision to ban songs and plays in the programme of the renowned Babil Festival, an annual cultural event. In Basra, the provincial council intervened to cancel a French Circus programme, trying to justify its action on flimsy religious grounds.

Democratic and civil society organisations, with an active participation of cultural associations and intellectuals, have now organised a national campaign against these repressive measures. They consider them to be part of a systematic policy to suppress democratic rights and freedoms, and to lay the foundations for a despotic religious state in Iraq, against the will of the Iraqi people.

As part of the campaign against repression, a big public protest meeting was held in Al-Mutanabi Street (the heart of the Iraqi book-selling district) in central Baghdad, on 3rd December 2010, expressing solidarity with the Iraqi Writers’ Union and calling for immediate action by the government and parliament to rescind the recent repressive and unconstitutional measures taken by local authorities in Baghdad and several other provinces.

A solidarity campaign has been launched by a number of Iraqi intellectuals based in the UK to lobby the British Parliament, government, intellectuals, cultural associations and human rights organisations in order to press the Iraqi Government and parliament to act immediately:

• To annul all the repressive and anti-democratic measures taken by the Baghdad provincial council and other local authorities.

• To abolish all the draconian decrees that had been issued by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime and its so-called “Revolutionary Command Council”.

• To abide by the civil and democratic rights stipulated in the Iraqi Constitution, and to take firm action against any violations of these rights and freedoms.

• To defend the intellectual rights and freedom of expression by democratic and civil society organisations.

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