Middle East (Iran and Iraq)

The battle between Iran and Iraq ended with a ceasefire being signed in 1988 but the war continued for most Iranians and their leadership. Even today after three decades, the war continues for Iranians who live in the borderlands as they struggle with the landmines and left-overs of the battles. Mehdi Monem, a celebrated Iranian war photographer, frames the pain of Iranians in the borderlands as the counter-narrative that challenges the mainstream frames of propaganda. He challenges the master narrative of the Islamic Republic of Iran that generates meanings for the frames of the war through notions of martyrdom and sacrifice. Hence, I follow his work in the context of the visual culture of martyrdom via an ethnography that explains how Iranians receive the pain of others 30 years after the war at home and abroad.

Oil was first discovered at Masjed-i Suleiman (Iran) in 1908 and subsequently pipelines were constructed to transfer oil from Masjed-i Suleiman to the Persian Gulf. Additionally, an oil refinery was built at Abadan Island (Iran), which is located the opposite side of Basra. Such developments were a sign of the impending danger. Few years after the discovery of oil, Iraq met her first oil-based water pollution. The pollution arose in Braim village, on the Abadan Island, by sinking of a pontoon, which was loaded 60.000 gallons of oil. The pontoon belonged to Anglo-Persian Oil Company and caused a serious pollution affecting both Dawasir estates, which was one of the most important cultivating lands in Basra, and drinking waters of Shatt al-Arab River. In this context, this paper discusses oil-based water pollution around Basra and Shatt al-Arab in the aftermath of the discovery of oil, dimensions of the risk caused by the pollution and its effects on the local people.

La invasión de Estados Unidos a Irak en 2003 causó un grave daño a la sociedad y a la economía iraquí, situación que no se logró solucionar con el programa de reconstrucción impuesto por Occidente. En este contexto, Irán e Irak iniciaron una nueva relación que abarca diversos ámbitos, entre ellos el económico, el cual ha sido analizado de manera limitada y marginal. El presente trabajo analiza la inserción de Irán en la economía iraquí en el periodo 2003-2014, los datos encontrados sugieren que progresivamente Irán ha contribuido de manera positiva aunque modesta, en el proceso de reconstrucción de Irak.

Since the collapse of the Baʿathist regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Shiʿi Muslim rituals, in particular the annual commemorations of Arbaʿin, have seen a revival in popularity. Based on two fieldwork studies conducted during Arbaʿin in 2016 and 2017, the present study attempts to examine the changing characteristics of the rituals. It does so by studying the increasing digitization of Arbaʿin as a commemorative pilgrimage to Karbala, Iraq, to the shrine of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husayn. This ethnographic study argues for a mediated conception of Arbaʿin pilgrimage in that digital technologies serve as an embodied site of interaction in shaping shared experiences based on networked sociability. Examining the intimate connections between “physical” and “virtual” spaces, as in the case of Mawakib or gatherings shaped in the form of temporary lodgings in the course of walking processions, the study argues that various uses of digital technologies for pilgrimage are less about means of devotional expression than a series of experiences of digital significance. The paper makes the final argument that the digital practices embedded in ritual processions are acted upon to enhance experience, which increasingly fuses technology with ritual action.