Iraq's Blacks Demand Recognition

Black Children are suffering discrimination at Basra's schools. (IOL photo)

"Black Iraqis are still seen as slaves although engaged in different sectors of the society and there isn't a law that guarantee our rights as citizens," Salah Hashimi, 38, told IslamOnline.net.

"The government says that they don't discriminate and that we are all Iraqis, however, those of us who face daily discriminations know otherwise."

Hashimi, who complains of discrimination at his job environment, recently paid a visit to his son's school after a teacher ordered the child to sit at the back of the classroom and called him "a little slave."

"When my son told me what happened I got angry and went to the school asking for his rights," the father recalled bitterly.

"When I saw that nothing was going to be done I looked for a lawyer but he refused to take the case saying there was nothing in the law criminalizing such incidents."

According to information acquired from local NGOs, blacks are believed to number nearly two of the 27 millions Iraqis registered in the latest census.

They have no representation in local governments and the parliament.

Black men are the main workers at plantations in Basra's farms and are known for being responsible for hard labour, while many black women work as housekeepers.

There has been a black presence in Basra since reportedly the 7th century.

Up to 50 percent of them migrated to the Arabian Peninsula after the birth of Islam 1,500 years ago.

According to Abdullah Kareem Jabour, a history teacher in Basra, the rest have come steadily in the centuries since, some trafficked as slaves and others lured by broken promises of riches.

By the 16th century, some stayed in Basra but others began moving to Iran and settled in the southern region of Khuzestan.

Sufferings

Blacks complain of deeply-rooted discrimination and prejudice.

“After centuries since the first black community, coming from Africa, arrived in Iraq, discrimination has been part of their daily lives, differing only in the place, or the way used to exclude them from daily social routines,” Ibraheem Abdel-Rassoul, a black Iraqi working as volunteer for a local NGO, told IOL.

“In many schools children suffer discrimination and in the beginning of a new millennium, mixed marriages are still seen with bad eyes by many members of the local society.”

Bassam Khalid Khalif, a 48-year-old gardener in Basra, had a personal experience.

"When I was young I fell in love with a white girl but her family sent her to Baghdad and threatened me," he recalled bitterly.

"I know that there are good people around but the way the majority looks at me is as if I had a contagious disease and being too close might be dangerous."

Recognition

Known as Zanj, an offensive term that is almost the equivalent of negro, the black community in Iraq believes that being recognised as a minority group would help guarantee their rights and scale back discrimination.

"Discrimination against black people is a crime in the majority of countries worldwide but in Iraq there isn't a law that punishes such attitudes," says Jalal Diyab, a rights activist of black descendent.

"A law should be drafted to prohibit racism in Iraq and a quota created like the existing quota for Christians, Assyrians and other minorities in the country," he contends.

"It won't end all problems but will help to build a new society without discrimination."

Diyab's Movement of Free Iraqis is the most important organisation fighting against discrimination in Basra.

It believes that much more is needed to reverse the situation and without political support, the fear increases.

"Our work is to change this reality and the government has an important role to reverse this issue."

Until then, Khalif, the Basra gardener, will continue to bleed psychologically.

"I'm a human being like any other Iraqi and the colour of my skin does not make me different when I think, behave, love, pray or work. It is just a detail taken too serious by some white people with bad heart."