Description

Article written by 2008 DPDF Urban Visual Studies Fellow Mona Damluji, featured in Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Volume 21, No. 2:

Physical, sectarian-based segregation is a recent phenomenon in Baghdad. This essay examines
how this urban condition has resulted from U.S. political interventions in occupied Iraq,
which have actively reproduced, intensified, codified and spatially reinforced the significance
of sectarian difference. It discusses the emergence of sectarian militias, details the violent
practices used to consolidate territory, and maps the transformation of once heterogeneous
neighborhoods into separate Shi’a and Sunni enclaves. By focusing on intersecting security
discourses and the erection of concrete walls by the occupying Multi-National Forces (MNF),
the essay argues that Baghdad’s new segregated neighborhoods have hardened and intensified
patterns of internal conflict, diminishing the potential for reconciliation.