Iraq

Approx 97% of Iraqis, including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, are Muslim (60-65% Shi’a and 32-37% Sunni). Religious minorities include Christians, Yazidis, Kaka’is, Sabaean-Mandeans, Baha’is and Zoroastrians.

Our projects in Iraq take a range of approaches to tackle religious inequalities including: highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on religious minorities, monitoring (and mitigating) hate speech, working with young people from religious minorities to capture their oral heritage, curriculum reform (making it more religiously inclusive) and teacher training, working with women from religious minorities to advocate for themselves.

CREID projects in Iraq

Interfaith service delivery: Developing the capacity of Iraqi youth to capture their oral heritage under threat

This project is working with over 100 youth from different religious minorities to document, archive and disseminate the oral heritage of their communities. It will…

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Monitoring hate speech: Combating hate speech and fostering religious cohesion in Iraq

The programme has a three-pronged approach: to document the use of hate speech online and offline; to create counter-measures and advocacy to offset the impact…

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Building coalitions: Minority women’s coalition

A comprehensive study analysing the narratives of women’s movements in Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Myanmar and Nigeria with a focus on the extent to which the…

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Building coalitions: Curriculum reform and teacher training in Iraq

The programme aims to build a wide coalition involving representatives of all ethno-religious groups and educationalists to design and deliver an educational curriculum promoting inclusivity…

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Covid-19 and Freedom of Religion or Belief

Since the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, CREID has adapted its programme of work and responded to redress the increased impact of Covid-19…

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Our work in Iraq

Featured September 30, 2021

#Incite! Identifying and challenging online hate speech

Webinar sharing pioneering research from Iraq and Pakistan on hate speech targeting religious minorities and approaches to countering this. Watch again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KG-fdhCL7k Around the world hate speech, especially online hate speech, is on the rise. But it’s most dangerous in places riven by political insecurity…

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Front cover of CREID Working Paper 13 on Food and Drink Metaphors in Iraqi Syriac

A Study of Food and Drink Metaphors in Iraqi Syriac

In this Working Paper, Shivan Shlaymoon Toma investigates the ways in which Syriac native speakers from Iraq conceptualise their understandings of various abstract domains, feelings,…

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Screenshot of CREID Working Paper 14 on the languages of Bashiqa in Iraq

The Language of the People of Bashiqa: A Vehicle of their Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Working Paper by Dr Saeed Adris Saeed and Wafaa Sabah Khuder provides a linguistic, a historical, as well as a socio-cultural record of the…

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Every time I look in the mirror, or I shower, I look at the tattoo and I remember my uncle – the heritage story of my tattoo (Iraq)

Irvin Ibrahim Solman speaks to Raad Eido Rehan, an Iraqi Yazidi, who shares painful memories about his tattoos. Men and women from religious minorities have…

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A representation of beauty and community resilience in the face of threats and displacement – the heritage story of my tattoo (Iraq)

In this heritage case study, Nidaa Khalil Aswad interviewed and photographed, her grandmother Nemsha Shlo Smo. Nemsha was born in 1938 and has lived in…

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Tattoos create meaning among people as a form of intangible folk heritage, a feature that has prevailed since ancient times – the heritage story of my tattoo (Iraq)

Kheyriyah Qasim is a septuagenarian Yazidi mother of 12 children, originally from Sinjar, Iraq. Owing to circumstances earlier in her life her actual age is…

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Catch up on CREID news, events and videos at International Freedom of Religion or Belief Ministerial Conference

Earlier this month, six hundred delegates from over 100 countries attended the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion Belief, hosted for the first time…

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Religious diversity in humanitarian settings

This is the video of an event organised by CREID as part of the Civil Society Fringe events for the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom…

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Event July 5, 2022

Silhouette of a figure sat in front of a laptop

Hate speech and freedom of religion or belief

Join CREID partners, Minority Rights Group, for the launch of a pioneering toolkit which highlights the dangers of hate speech against those of a faith…

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Event July 5, 2022

Pluralistic and inclusive interfaith approaches to building communities

Join CREID partners, Al-Khoei Foundation, to hear about experience from its Iraq and UK programmes on taking a pluralistic and inclusive approach to building community…

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Tal Afar: higher demand for Covid-19 jabs

Nineveh, 2021: A resident of Tal Afar District receives the second dose of the Corona vaccine. Photo by Talafar Health Office. "After I took the…

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Diwaniyah Roma receive Coronavirus vaccine effortlessly

Al-Diwaniyah, March 2022: A mother and her child in the village of Al-Zuhour, home to the Roma. Photo by Tahseen Al-Zarkani. Umm (mother of) Salah…

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