Why has Nasiriyah become the compass of protesters in Iraq?

Alaa Kole-Nasiriyah

Since the protests began in early October, Nasiriyah (the center of Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq) described the most violent area after Baghdad.

The nature of the movement and the protest in Dhi Qar Governorate differed from the rest of the regions, where it witnessed the burning of party headquarters and the death and injury of more and more, at a time that no other governorate had witnessed, and the matter became more fierce after a few days of calm, so that the scenario was repeated again by burning the headquarters of other parties In addition to government buildings.

It went further than that, when large numbers began attacking the homes of officials, and burning the homes of party leaders, and with all the fires ignited by the demonstrators, many dead and wounded, and with every confrontation the burning of buildings and cars, including the military.

Nasiriyah became an inspiration for other cities to escalate, declaring on the 13th of this month a "nationwide deadline" for a week, with which a large number of Iraqis interacted with it, as a sudden escalation step, and included cutting off the main roads in the event the authorities did not implement the demands related to choosing an incontestable prime minister. Early elections, and the ratification of the election law.

With the end of the deadline, violent confrontations took place on the highway linking Basra and Baghdad, after which three people were killed and 28 protesters were injured, returning one day after Nasiriyah declared again a million walk on foot towards the Green Zone in Baghdad and besieged it in the middle of next month.

With Nasiriyah's escalating steps, the Iraqi protests returned again at a higher rate, and Nasiriyah turned into a compass for protesters in Iraq, which the authorities feared.

Why Nasiriyah?
Nasiriyah is based on historical things related to the city and the events it went through, but the near thing is that most groups of the popular crowd from this city, which represents the highest rate of unemployment and human intensity, and entered into tribal experiences that have the ability to confront, as activist in the academic demonstrations asserted Hashem for the Island Net.

The success that has been achieved since the start of the protests - as Hashem speaks - is that it is the first city to break the prestige of parties and militias and burn their headquarters, and those who have delayed this topic have tried to imitate it and turn it into an icon of the burning issue, as it is more organized and bold in the emergence of frank and clear personalities, and this is an important issue that was not available in Other provinces.

Hashem continues that the city is sprawling, and the demonstrations are not in the center just like the rest of the provinces, but also distribute their efforts to the districts and districts, which is a process of relieving pressure, and thus this organizational work was able to confuse the security leaders, as the violent response with which the authority dealt with it and the provision of many victims Behind a great deal of sympathy for her.

A revolutionary legacy
The memory of Nasiriyah is linked to a historical space spanning centuries, and before it is called by this name there is a legacy of a revolutionary recipe among its sons, and this characteristic was strengthened and rooted, when talking about its history and going back, and perhaps what happens in the demonstrations may be evidence that Nasiriyah will not calm down, as the writer says And the activist Haider Al-Yaqoubi, Al Jazeera Net.

And recently it became - as Yaqoubi emphasizes - the compass of protesters in all of Iraq. The protesters of Tahrir Square and the rest of the provinces were inspired by lessons and lessons in social solidarity and insistence on obtaining rights, and they became disobedient to governments and their authorities, and the more scenes of repression against the protesters, the numbers rise.

The matter is not confined to adults - as Yaqoubi says - young people participate as well, and perhaps the most prominent position in this revolution is the little girl who donated her earrings to buy a new tent and covers for the protesters, whose tents were burned by an armed attack several days ago.

Activist and writer Alaa Hashem believes that Nasiriyah along the line is an opposition city and in confrontation with the authority in all the regimes that ruled the country, even a system after 2003 led by parties and figures belonging to Nasiriyah and the south in general.

He told Al-Jazeera Net that this was not convincing to the sons of Nasiriyah, and he did not stop a barrier without their refusal, because they were brought up to refuse, Nasiriyah is a city that loves revolt over power, and loves rejection, because it is not a malicious tree, but a tree of stubbornness and rejection.

Blood philosophy
I think that there are the three most important reasons for this city - as the poet Ali al-Ghuraifi says in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net - are the genes of leadership rooted in its sons, and their ability to confront and take responsibility; and therefore the people of Nasiriyah were leading the scene by doing initiatives, as they took the lead in this area.

Al-Ghuraifi continues that the second reason is the philosophy of blood, and I believe that the reaction of the authority towards it, and the killing of more than 120 protesters was a major reason in the forefront of the scene after he gave her children a message of persistence and intensity of hope and the promise.

The third reason is confidence in this city by the general Iraqi people that Nasiriyah possesses all this amount of history and civilizational edifice, and is able to establish a civilized city and other cities on ruins and rubble, as it is a city baptized by the waters of revolutions and Euphrates.