The popular protests in Iraq are approaching the first anniversary of their launch, with the demonstrators continuing to go out to the squares so far, while the demands and slogans are still continuing, in light of questions that people are asking about the protest, which has not yet achieved any concrete things.

In light of what happened in the country after the protests that began in early October 2019, and the harsh violence that accompanied them, which claimed hundreds of deaths and thousands of wounded in unprecedented clashes, the features of the events and the desired change are still not clear until now.

The protests left hundreds dead and thousands injured (Al-Jazeera)

The protest continues

The protest movement was not a reaction to an event related to services, as it is always said about it every passing summer, rather it is resentment and anger that has been growing for years, coming out every period demanding services, but in reality it is a complete desire to change the political situation and the mismanagement of the state by the parties of power, as well as Says a prominent activist in the Baghdad demonstrations, Hamid Jahjeih.

The protest movement, as Juhajeh assures Al-Jazeera Net, will continue and take different forms, and it may subside for a period but will return with greater force and violence as the generations change and become more miserable and without a future.

He expected that this movement would produce electoral organizations, not political ones, that could participate in the upcoming elections and might have fortunes, but would not take any significant space in influencing decision-making, and he also expected that Al-Kazimi, with his new political formation, trying to win over the protesting youth, would have A strong presence in the upcoming elections.

The protest will not stop, according to Jahjeih, as long as there is corruption and mismanagement of state institutions and the domination of parties with armed wings over the state's capabilities.

Despite the seriousness of the events witnessed by the protests, the great turns that they have gone through, and the fall of hundreds of victims, the young people reiterate that the protest is past and cannot end even if it lasts for years, until the national demands for which they went out are fulfilled, which are demands that do not represent a class or sect.

Al-Gharabi believes that overthrowing the Abdul Mahdi government is the most important change at the political level (Al-Jazeera)

The most important change

The prominent human rights defender and activist in the Nasiriyah demonstrations, Hussein Al-Gharabi, believes that the most important change at the political level is to bring down the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, and to change the tools of choosing the current government, and there is a difference between the security dealings in the previous and current government, and there are new political formations that emerged after the movement, and there are entities Policy under construction.

Al-Gharabi added during his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that there is a change in the national culture and a sense of responsibility at the social level, and a new generation has emerged looking for a different homeland in all its parts, and we also saw a prominent role for women in the protests revolution and this reflected positively on their general role in the country.

For his part, writer and political observer Walid Al-Taie goes far in his analysis of the protest, as he says, "After a year has passed since the popular demonstrations, in fact I have not found any change that has occurred in the central and southern governorates. Rather, corrupt faces have gone, and faces have become corrupted and even question their identity. Patriotism, we did not find a single positive that happened and changed the reality of the exhausted Iraqi citizen to deserve mention and praise. "

Al-Taie added during an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that all that happened is chaos, division, and the spread of a culture of devastation, destruction and arson, and encouragement of civil war, taking up arms and attacking state institutions, and all these methods lead to an unknown and dark future.

Analysts believe that the political scene has changed in Iraq, but not in favor of the protesters (Al-Jazeera)

The compass is lost

And like any protest movement that did not really come but rather as a reaction, and in an environment fraught with external interference and its internal extensions and effects, it can be said that the political scene in Iraq has changed as a result of the protests, but not in favor of the protesters, as researcher and professor of political science at Baghdad University Anwar Al-Haidari says to Al-Jazeera Net .

The protest movement, as Al-Haidari asserts, did not produce leaders or organize, and did not present clear demands that can be responded to, and therefore the possibility of external parties directing the protest movement seems high, at a time when its compass is lost.

He adds that after the protests, the scene was complicated, as the strong emotion that the protesters brought has faded, the mistakes that accompanied it accumulated, and the forces that came out against them are no longer taken by surprise as they were taken before, as they absorbed the shock, rearranged their cards and adapted to the new authority.

Hence, we cannot expect the protest scene to continue as it was launched before, as Al-Haidari sees it, and it cannot be effective unless it resorts to violence again, and in the event that it resorts to it, it will face counter-violence, which complicates the scene and exacerbates the damage.

Hashem considered that the parties and the political system suffered major shocks after the protests (Al-Jazeera)

Industry awareness

Observers of political and academic affairs at Dhi Qar University, Hazem Hashem, confirms that the change that occurred was in the areas of consciousness, and the tax that was paid from the sacrifices of hundreds of young people did not change anything except in the awareness space of people, who became more knowledgeable and less believing in the ability to change.

Hashem added, during his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, that the protests started from a flabby 16-year-old reality that witnessed sectarian quotas, collapse and general devastation, and the youth reached the point of no return, and after a year of demonstrations, the parties were subjected to major shocks.

Hashem said that within a year, whoever has those high ceilings of demands cannot be convinced of change, and all the paths that have changed appear to be formal paths, and young people are now attracting multiple directions, the first of which is the pure national trend, and the other is related to international frameworks, regional equations, changes in US policy and the nature of the conflict. And the power of the weapon on the ground.

Since the start of the Iraqi protests a year ago, more than 555 demonstrators were killed, while more than 24,000 of them were injured, including a number of security personnel, according to a source in the Commission for Human Rights, and there is no statistic related to the material and economic losses that occurred during the demonstrations. Until now.