By LOUISA LOVELUCK AND MUSTAFA SALIM | The Washington Post | Published: May 12, 2021 BAGHDAD The killings take place in public and are captured on surveillance footage. Those videos are then watched by millions. But even if the gunmen are identified, no one is prosecuted, and the cycle starts again. Across Baghdad and southern Iraq, a rising tide of attacks on activists and journalists is alarming what remains of a protest movement to demand the ouster of Iraq s U.S.-molded political system and the often Iran-linked armed groups that prop it up. Mass street demonstrations were crushed last year with deadly force, often by paramilitary groups that the protesters denounced. Now, as some activists prepare to run in elections, prominent figures in the protest movement are being picked off as they walk the streets or drive home at the end of the day.
Hoping for change, Iraqi activists seek political alternative
Activists who once refused to take part in a political system they say is rigged are now looking to change that system by getting elected to parliament.
Thursday 11/02/2021
A file picture shows an Iraqi youth draped in the national flag flashing the victory sign while standing before a statue of 19th century Iraqi cleric and poet Mohamed Said al-Habboubi (1849-1915) in Nasiriyah. (AFP)
BAGHDAD Iraqi lawyer Hussein al-Ghorabi said he left his hometown of Nasiriyah four months ago after an armed group threatened him over his political activism.
Now, as he moves around Iraq, he is trying to set up a political party that he and some fellow activists hope will challenge those in power whom they accuse of corruption and ineptitude.
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