Ghazil pet souk

The Ghazil souk, a traditional Friday morning past time for young and old alike, spreads out in the shadows of the 15th century Khalif’s mosque. Merchants are hawking yellow, turquoise and green budgies, pulling them out of a row of cages for passers-by to see. Down a narrow side street, a store filled with tropical fish and aquariums is situated vis-à-vis a taxidermy shop exhibiting dusty animal heads.  Around the corner, middle aged men stand shoulder to shoulder, leaving a space in their midst for the archaic rite of two cocks engaging in a lethal dance. Thoroughbred dogs, alligators, snakes, monkeys and even a flamingo, abandoned after the exodus of foreign embassy staff following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, are sold right next to locally bred pigeons.

Fifteen years later, the Ghazil has been subjected to numerous attacks – the most recent carried out on February 1, 2008, resulting in the death 13 people enjoying life’s simple pleasures.  According to news reports, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia had strapped explosives onto a mentally disabled woman’s body and sent her into the bustling crowd to detonate the bomb using a mobile phone.