ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An award show held in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, coinciding with the country’s independence day on Tuesday, drew heavy criticism from a Shiite party and mixed reactions from the public due to the outfits worn at the event being deemed unacceptable by the country’s conservative-majority population.
Hundreds of artists and personalities from Iraq and the rest of the Arab world gathered for the first Iraq International Festival in Baghdad’s Grand Festivities Square on Tuesday. The event was originally set to be held on September 29, but was delayed in the wake of the Hamdaniya wedding tragedy and the period of mourning which followed.
The outfits worn by some of the female attendees of event drew strong reactions from the Iraqi public, including the Shiite al-Sadiqoun bloc, a party affiliated with the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, which called on relevant authorities to take measures against the organizers of the event and “everyone who contributed to this insult to Iraqi culture and history.”
“Celebrating the Iraqi independence day should express Iraqi authenticity and the country’s culture, and depict traditions and rituals rooted in Iraqi souls, but this festival displayed images of occupation and pornography that do not belong to our past or present in any way, and is a clear insult to the Iraqi people,” read a statement from the Shiite bloc.
Mohammed al-Baldawi, the bloc’s spokesperson, announced that signatures will be collected at the Iraqi parliament “to hold those responsible for the ceremony accountable.”
The controversy sparked mixed reactions from the Iraqi public on social media, with some arguing that the scenes from the event contradicted Iraqi “values and morals,” while others called for respecting Iraq’s multicultural identity and its varying social norms.
“We all have different opinions here. There are different cultures here, so we have to educate [the people] step by step, and I personally see a lot of changes,” Haider al-Hashimi, a Baghdad resident, told Rudaw’s Ziad Ismail.
“There is no Iraqi who would say ‘This is not a celebration.’ An Iraqi knows this and would not say that,” said Hadi Hussein, another resident.
Despite having an Arab Muslim-majority population, Iraq is home to many different ethnic and religious minorities with a vast range of traditions and values that are often respected by the country's various groups. Nevertheless, the country is far from a safe haven for these minorities as they are frequently subjected to political targeting and marginalization.
Grand parties with female outfits deemed inappropriate by the conservative population are not an uncommon occurrence in Iraq, with such events held in the country's more-progressive provinces on a daily basis receiving little to no reaction.
