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Iraqi Diasporic Identity Across Generations, Struggle, and War

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Iraqi Diasporic Identity Across Generations, Struggle, and War IRAQI DIASPORIC IDENTITY ACROSS GENERATIONS, STRUGGLE, AND WAR A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arab Studies By Marwa Wael Alkhairo, B.A. Washington, D.C. December 3, 2008 Copyright 2008 by Marwa Wael Alkhairo All Rights Reserved ii IRAQI DIASPORIC IDENTITY ACROSS GENERATIONS, STRUGGLE, AND WAR Marwa Wael Alkhairo, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Rochelle A. Davis, PhD ABSTRACT Now more than ever, Iraqi sectarian and ethnic identities have assumed larger roles in Iraq’s political conflict due to a sectarianism discourse and sectarian infighting. Since before the 2003 Iraq war, many US policymakers and the media have sustained this discourse by presupposing that communal identities reign supreme in Iraq, and that there is therefore no societal cohesion as Iraqi national sentiment and identity do not exist. This simplistic postulation is inadequate and can lead to disastrous proposals- leaving a nuanced and multi-layered understanding to be pursued. This thesis examines Iraqi diasporic identity-formation by analyzing 77 extensive interviews with members of the Iraqi diasporic community residing in the Washington DC-Metropolitan area. It traces the interviewees' self-narratives from their time in Iraq until today; and examines if and how their identity-formations have been affected since leaving Iraq and more specifically after the 2003 Iraq war. Through nostalgic memories, many Iraqis have frozen their past to cope with the perplexing present, and project the frozen past to the future as a refuge for their identity. A majority of the interviewees do not identify with post-2003 Iraq, blame the violence on external forces, reject the sectarianism discourse, tell their memories of a unified Iraq, and hope for a homegrown democratic government that places Iraqi society as its main priority. They live in a condition of diasporic (dis)enchantment and have created refuge identities that provide them a sense of permanence. iii This thesis is dedicated to Mama and Baba, my parents; and to Mama Najat, my maternal grandmother who passed away in the diaspora on October 27, 2008. It is they who have kept me diasporically enchanted. With all my love and admiration, Marwa Wael Alkhairo iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 1.1 Setting the Stage............................................................................................................................................2 1.2 Significance of Study....................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Methodology.................................................................................................................................................8 1.4 Main Research Questions ...........................................................................................................................10 1.5 Main Thesis Argument and Thesis Framework ........................................................................................11 Chapter 2: Meeting the Iraqis ....................................................................................................15 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Iraqi Immigration/Migration ......................................................................................................................15 2.2 Attitudes......... ............................................................................................................................................21 2.3 Dollars............ ............................................................................................................................................24 2.4 Worship: Levels of Religiosity and Sectarian Sentiment .........................................................................25 2.5 Internalizing a Discourse ............................................................................................................................26 2.6 Locating the Author ....................................................................................................................................28 2.7 Research Limitations...................................................................................................................................33 2.8 Clarifying the Subject of Study..................................................................................................................36 2.8.1 The Iraqi Kurdish Question .........................................................................................................37 2.9 Defining Iraqi ............................................................................................................................................49 Chapter 3: The Iraqi Diaspora, Memory, and Identity................................................................53 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................................................53 3.1 Theories on Diaspora ..................................................................................................................................53 3.2 The Iraqi Diasporic Condition....................................................................................................................55 3.3 Definition of Diaspora... .............................................................................................................................59 3.4 Theories on Memory and Identity..............................................................................................................64 3.5 Understanding the Past and Present in Iraqi Self-Narratives ...................................................................70 Chapter 4: Diasporic enchantment: The “Real Iraq” ..................................................................77 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................................................77 4.1 Growing up in Iraq ......................................................................................................................................77 4.2 Diasporic enchantment................................................................................................................................80 4.2.1 Political Discussions in the Diaspora........................................................................................85 4.3 Creating the “Real Iraq” ............................................................................................................................87 4.3.1 Before and After the Creation of the Nation-State...................................................................92 4.3.1.1 The Monarchial Period..............................................................................................96 v 4.3.2 Neighborhoods, Streets, and Community ..................................................................................97 4.3.2.1 Nursing .....................................................................................................................105 4.3.3 Schools/Dorms..........................................................................................................................107 4.3.4 Marriage: the Su-shis, and so on .............................................................................................108 4.3.5 Education and Manners............................................................................................................112 4.3.6 Islamic Activism and Resistance.............................................................................................114 4.4 Some Exceptions: The Kurdish Dream ...................................................................................................115 4.5 The End of the “Real Iraq”: Government Manipulation ........................................................................118 4.6 The “Real Iraq” Across Generations........................................................................................................125 Chapter 5: Diasporic disenchantment: Refuge Identities..........................................................133 Chapter Summary ..........................................................................................................................................133 5.1 Becoming a Diasporic Iraqi......................................................................................................................133 5.2 Diasporic disenchantment.........................................................................................................................135 5.3 Diasporic Refuge Identities ......................................................................................................................140 5.4 Sect and Ethnic Identities .........................................................................................................................141 5.4.1 Sect ..........................................................................................................................................142 5.4.2 Ethnicity....................................................................................................................................147
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