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Journalists enjoy a few beers at a bar near the Tigris River
By: Borzou Daragahi (Special to the Bulletin)
Published date: 24/6/2003
Drinking life returns slowly to Baghdad despite attacks on liquor stores
Mohamed Majed's makeshift bar is a trash-strewn parking lot beneath a highway overpass in Jaderiah. It's got half a dozen plastic tables and chairs, a barbecue grill, a cooler filled with cans of beer and a boombox pumping out Arab pop tunes. It's got plenty of cheap whiskey and gin and plenty of fresh air. It isn't much. But after 8 p.m, the place is hopping with tipsy customers stopping off for a nightcap.
"Everyone expresses themselves their own way," said Majed, a skinny 25-year-old with an easy laugh. "Some write graffiti. Some start a newspaper. We like to drink."
For decades, Saddam the dictator tortured and punished political dissidents who protested his rule. But for years, Saddam the teetotaler also didn't even let his people enjoy a drink in public.
Up until the 1980s many Iraqis loved to drink. At parties, Baghdad's middle-class professionals placed whole bottles of whiskey in front of each guest. But after Saddam Hussein's defeat in the second Gulf War, Saddam tried to reinvent himself as a devout Muslim. He began attending mosques on Fridays and sprinkling his talk with religious references. He launched a faith campaign, and in 1996 he banned drinking in all public places.
"If you were out here drinking or set up an unlicensed liquor store, you'd be arrested and jailed for at least six months," said Mujad.
Of course, Saddam couldn't go too far. His oldest son Uday was a nasty and violent drunk. For fun, he got sloshed and fired off assault rifles at parties. So Saddam didn't outright ban booze, he just
Published date: 24/6/2003
Author: Borzou Daragahi (Special to the Bulletin)
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