#marsh arabs

Traditional Reed House Settlement in the Iraq Marshes of Al-Chibayish, Dhi Qar

From the gasab reed, which is bundled and flexed to form sturdy arches, the Midan build their ingenious dwellings. (via The Marsh Arabs Revisited / Stories of the Marsh Arabs / Written and photographed by Michael Spencer, AramcoWorld)

Mustafa Hashim & Murtada Al-Janobi Ahwari citizens and activists

The people who live there now are called Madan and are linguistically and culturally tied to the ancient Sumerians, whose lives were intertwined with the reeds, water, and wildlife in the marshes. The Madan are Shia muslims, and during the Iran-Iraq war between 1980-1988, many of them deserted Saddam’s army, using the marshes as a hideout. In 1991, Saddam sent his army into the marshes and killed tens of thousands of Madan, bombing their villages and burning them to the ground. That same year, he executed a plan he had been sitting on for years, draining the marshes. Embankments were built on the edges of the Tigris and Euphrates to prevent water from flowing into the marshes, and an enormous drainage canal called “Glory River” was built to funnel the water directly to the sea. The UN declared it the biggest environmental catastrophe of the 20th century. The Madan people scattered to other parts of Iraq, often moving to city slums to work as day laborers. When Saddam was captured in 2003, Madan people flooded back from all over Iraq and began to dig holes in Saddam’s embankments to let the water back into the marshes. Today the wetlands are 40-50% refilled, and many have tried to return to their old way of living, building reed houses, raising buffalo, fishing, and hunting in the marshes.

Amazing.