About

On 20 March 2003 two Lockheed F117A stealth fighters and thirty six Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched against Dora Farms on the outskirts of Baghdad to decapitate the leadership of Iraq. This was the starting point of the invasion lead by US/British military to rid Iraq of its WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction) to oust Saddam Hussein and bring democracy to the Iraqi people.

Five years later Saddam Hussein is dead, the WMD have never been found and Iraq is in a state of civil war. A society ruled by the gun where taking your child to school can cost your life hardly qualifies as a democracy.

The debate whether the invasion was justified goes on as the death toll has exceeded thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians and still counting. This is today’s reality of those who are forced to stay in a violent, volatile and sectarian Iraq.

BETWEEN WARS – LIFE GOES ON shows a different side of Iraq to that of the violence and killing that has numbed a worldwide TV audience. It is a collection of images from 1991-1996 showing daily life in the Iraqi capital and throughout the country under UN sanctions during Saddam’s dictatorship. Life was not free or democratic but stable and without constant fear, albeit under repression.

The images range from the Kurdish controlled Zakho in the North, to the IMK (Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (a.k.a. Ansar al Islam) controlled areas around Halabjah in the East, to the Shia controlled South in Basrah and the Western deserts of Al Qaim along the Syrian border.

In the center of it all the bustling capital Baghdad with a population of four million people, its many souks and vivid street life.

 In the narrow alleyways one will find fish sellers, butchers, vegetable and grain merchants and displays of bright plastic kitchen wares. Coppersmiths, oud-builders and watch-makers toil away amongst the daily hustle-and-bustle . 

On Fridays, animal lovers congregate in the shadow of the ancient Caliphs mosque to talk, have tea and trade anything that moves.

In the shadow of the 13th century Mustanseriyah school once the pinnacle of education in the Islamic world-numerous stores are nestled selling carpets, jewelry and antiques. Some of which the shrinking middle class had been forced to sell to procure daily necessities during in times of hyper inflation.

Two bridges upstream, carps are clubbed to death with the back of an axe before being pegged up around a wood burning fire and served as Masgouf, a Baghdad specialty.

BETWEEN WARS – LIFE GOES ON is a snapshot of a  country referred to as the “cradle of civilization” during an era void of suicide vests and roadside bombs - a country not worth to be forgotten.

Henry Arvidsson – March2008