Iraq went through a lot of scrutiny over its media and books under Saddam's regime.
Iraqis couldn't easily get access to any book they wanted to read if this book contained material that didn't conform to the Baath party's visions. Television in Iraq was controlled by the ruling party and Iraqis had no more than 3 channels to watch. So was the case with the radio. The internet was almost useless since you couldn't access any website that had connections with Americans or even the Kuwaiti and the Saudi governments at that time.
The government's control over people's lives at that time didn't stop just at that point. Only landlines were allowed in Iraq since it could be accessed by the intelligence agency. Cell phones were forbidden for that reason. Regarding the newspapers and magazines available, they were only Iraqi (i.e. controlled by Saddam's people) and Pro-Baath. Overall, Iraqis suffered from the disconnection with the rest of the world and were anything far from the revolution in the world of communication.
After the war, the Iraqi mentality was freed from the tyranny of the Baath Party. People could gain access to the internet, cell phones; formerly-forbidden books and newspapers are available now at the disposal of people who have not witnessed such form of the freedom of thought before.These changes are signs of a healthy society since picking information for the readers should not be a responsibility of the government. They should only offer what the world has to offer.
Today, as I was reading the news, I came across this statement ," The Ministry of Culture prevents the import of pro-violence books into Iraq." It states that the Minister, Tahir Al-Hamoud, confirmed that the ministry intends to do its best to prevent the import of books that contaminate the Iraqi youth with ideas about suicide bombing, racial discrimination, and any material that opposes what the Iraqi Constitution holds. He also said that the Iraqi Government is not going to apply this policy against the books that support political opinions not represented in the current Iraqi governement, including other cultural values.
Now, what does this policy really mean? Does it mean that Iraqis will not be able to read books they like? Does it mean that Iraqis can't read " The God's Dilusion" by Richard Dawkins? or for that matter, any secular book? since secularism is not adopted by the constitution!? or does it just mean that books published by "terrorists" themselves won't be sold?
The Ministry says that they're going to make sure that the books on the shelves of Iraqi Libraries and book shops have no "negative" effect on the Iraqi Society! And that, in my opinion, is a tough job! How can you do that with much objectivity in prospective?! Are they going to hold a conference each time a book's liability is questioned? Or, I don't see how one person can decide what's good and what's not for a whole country?
However, It is a tough decision to monitor what Iraqis read! It's an indirect control on what Iraqis can get their hands on. Let's just hope that it's not the beginning of a tyranny over Iraqi youth and that no further steps will be taken regarding the control of culture on Iraq...Because the Ministry of Culture is supposed to enlighten people, not block their minds!
By: Fadi Al-Asadi
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ReplyDeleteAround the year 2000, the Iraqi government came out with a cable sort of deal. We had one at my family's house until the invasion in 2003. It consisted of 14 channels including MTV, History, Discovery, Animal Planet and some other Arab channels; however, the service was very expensive for a lot of people. Sometimes, some of the shows were filtered but not all of them. I remember watching a documentary about Abdulkarim Kassim, former Iraqi president who was assassinated by the Baath Party.
ReplyDeleteFadi, I understand your concern about media censorship and that it might be a slippery slope to another tyranny.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I disagree on the currently banned resources, books that promote suicide bombing and terrorism culture are not something Iraqis are ready for. May be you are, and may be I am, but take a look at the current events, take a look at how many people change their world views everyday for the simplest reasons and grudges.
Take a look at how many people decided to make the wrong choices because of the wrong words blurted out by politicians.
Perhaps these books should be monitored today, but not tomorrow, and I understand that the fear is they will be monitored forever, but I think that monitoring terrorism literature is a great thing to keep up forever, afterall by reading their book, you're paying them a dollar! or a dinar or whatever, you know what I mean ..
Cheers
Thank you very much for your time!
ReplyDeleteAli, regarding the Al-Rafidain Group of Channels(which I believe you're talking about), yes, it was there! but let's not forget that all the channels that were there had not much to do with Politics, or even if they did, they didn't clearly state their opposition to Saddam. Therefore, he agreed to broadcast such channels! Further, not all Iraqis had it in their homes! In fact, only very few people did! So this was not an exception for the reasons mentioned. (let's not forget that some people did have satellite dishes before the war. These were very few people and thus won't be the topic of our discussion.)
Btw, Abdullkarim Kassim, from a Baathist point of view, was a traitor that the Baath Revolution of 1963 had helped remove from office.
Mohammaed, I clearly understand what you are saying. I know that there are a lot of immature people out there in Iraq that are ready to adopt any ideology even if it was bad.
ReplyDeleteMy main concern was for the other kind of books, the books that don't get along with what the Constitution says! I even gave an example about secular books and how they will be treated.
I hope that this step won't go any further in including all the books the ruling party doesn't see fit.
After all, curiosity is a virtue in us, though it might be assassinated by the higher authorities!
I thought this eliminated that chance:
ReplyDelete" He also said that the Iraqi Government is not going to apply this policy against the books that support political opinions not represented in the current Iraqi governement, including other cultural values."
It also included this misleading statement, "and any material that opposes what the Iraqi Constitution holds. " This is a general category and could include any book the authority might not like!
ReplyDeleteAnd the last part of the post states my concern, not criticism,
"However, It is a tough decision to monitor what Iraqis read! It's an indirect control on what Iraqis can get their hands on. Let's just hope that it's not the beginning of a tyranny over Iraqi youth and that no further steps will be taken regarding the control of culture on Iraq."
Fadi I want to thank you so much for your post. Actually two days ago I was reading news that the Ministry of culture will ban as they said "any website that harms the Iraqi youth from the public internet service", my concern is that this could be the beginning of an initiative from the Iraqi government to control the minds of Iraqis, as you mentioned in your article the terms they use are so general like "harm Iraqi minds" or "contradicts the constitution", all of these terms gives them a recognizable power to control the Iraqi minds. You know it never starts with an absolute banning of books they don't like but it always starts in a bit by bit process, I really hope that it never goes further than that but the question is what if it does?
ReplyDeleteExactly Zaid. That's what my concern has been. I mentioned that in the article. The pro-terrorism books prevention is wise, but what about the other ones that are described by the general statements?
ReplyDeleteI think if this process develops to include other cultural books then Iraqis are going to go through another age of darkness and separation from the world.
All we can do now is wait and see.
Thanks for your participation.
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