Both my parents are Iraqi Arabs from Baghdad. They escaped Iraq in the early 90s during Saddam's infamous Faith Campaign, where both my relatively leftist dad and my shia mother both fell under some prosecution. They left to Syria and then got resettled in the US thanks to a UN program. I speak fluent Arabic and meet up every year with my extended family in Jordan or Turkey, as both countries are relatively safe for Iraqis.

AMA about Iraqi politics, Iraqi society and the general cultural and political state of the Arab World. I will answer a few questions directly, but I'll keep the rest for late night today as I will go on a long ass drive in an hour.

    • Sankara [he/him,any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Horrible, but could've been worse somehow. The state of public hospitals is genuinely terrible and all good doctors left Iraq a long time ago to get paid a lot more in the Gulf, Turkey or in America. Private hospitals are a lot better in terms of doctors and material, but they're way too expensive for the average Iraqi. My uncle had bad covid in late July and he went to a private hospital. A two-day stay + treatments cost him around 1000 USD, in a country where average monthly wages are around 300-450 USD. The goverment controlled the early spread quite decently, but the economic impact forced them to re-open leading to a huge long wave, which is now thankfully slowing down.