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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iraq
Index
Reed Huts in the marshes of southern Iraq
IRAQI SOCIETY IS composed of sizable and distinct social groups
whose differences and divisions have been only slowly and
fitfully challenged by the emergence of a strong, centralized
political regime and state apparatus. Moreover, there are
regional and environmental differences between the scattered
mountain villages whose economic base is rain-fed grain crops and
the more densely populated riverine communities to the south that
are dependent on intricate irrigation and drainage systems for
their livelihood.
There are also linguistic and ethnic differences. The most
important exception to the Arab character of Iraq is the large
Kurdish minority, estimated at 19 percent of the population, or
3,092,820 in 1987. According to official government statistics,
Turkomans and other Turkic-speaking peoples account for only 2 to
3 percent of the population. There was previously a large Iranian
population settled around the
Shia (see Glossary) holy cities of
Karbala and An Najaf, and the southern port city of Basra; this
element was largely expelled by government decree in 1971-72 and
1979-80, and in 1987 only an estimated 133,000 or 0.8 percent of
the Iranian population remained.
Divisions along religious lines are deeprooted. Although
upward of 95 percent of Iraq's population is Muslim, the
community is split between
Sunnis (see Glossary) and Shias; the
latter group, a minority in the Arab world as a whole,
constitutes a majority in Iraq. Numerous observers believe that
the Shias make up between 60 and 65 percent of the inhabitants,
although the data to support this figure are not firm (official
government statistics set the number at only 55 percent). Of the
non-Muslim communities, fragmented Christian sects cannot be more
than 1 or 2 percent, concentrated mainly in the governorates of
Nineveh and Dahuk. A formerly extensive Jewish community is to
all practical purposes defunct. The establishment of the State of
Israel in 1948 and the defeat of the Arab armies in 1948-49
rendered the situation of Iraqi Jews untenable and led to a mass
exodus, both to Israel and to Iran in 1950.
Just before the Iran-Iraq War, the sharp cleavage between the
rural and urban communities that formerly characterized Iraqi
society had begun to break down as a result of policies
instituted by the government. The war has accelerated this
process. Large areas of the rural south have been devastated by
continuous fighting, which in turn has triggered a massive rural
migration to the capital. In the late 1980s, Iraqi and foreign
observers agreed that for the nation's economic health this
flight from the countryside would have to be reversed, and they
anticipated that the government would undertake measures to
accomplish this reversal once the war ended.
Data as of May 1988
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