Zubair, like other distant sections of Iraq, is a land of poverty and deteriorating public facilities, with dusty roads and basic cement buildings.
The long history of enslavement continues to cast a shadow on the way society perceives Afro-Iraqis, Hussein Dinar, deputy of the Zubair journalist union, told Rudaw.
“Society itself views the black community as slaves, and they are brought up in an environment where they are taught that every black person is a slave,” he told Rudaw’s Mustafa Goran.
Afro-Iraqis are descendants of the slave community and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa who ended up in Basra, which used to be the capital of the slave trade in Iraq.
“I call on the Iraqi federal government to recognize the black community as minorities in Iraq and to treat us as one as stated in the Iraqi constitution,” Zaynab Karamli, the spokesperson of the black community in Iraq, said.
“There should also be justice among the Iraqi people,” she added,
“The white people lead a top quality life, but we are looked down upon, and we are perceived as being lower,” Fakhriya Abdullah, an Iraqi resident, told Rudaw, referring to other Iraqis.
“There is a lot of discrimination against us and it is very obvious.”
Besides Zubair district, a significant proportion of Afro-Iraqis live in southern Iraq, particularly in the cities of Nasiriyah, Kut, and Samawah.
