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Iraq's middle class

(Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.)
I had the opportunity to visit what we in Americans would call the "burbs" of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. The electricity does not stay predictably on. The yards are for the most part, zero-scape rock. Yet, there is a burgeoning middle class.

My guide tells me today is a holiday. But I also know that not everyone knows it is just that. I am told around this time in 1991, Saddam lost his grip on this region of the world. I and many of you probably know and remember this as the Gulf War of 1991. Some government offices are closed - others remain open. No matter, Kurdistan of Iraq chugs along.

My guide/friend tells me that in 1987 or so, the village just a quarter mile away from Sulaymaniyah was also poisoned gassed by the Saddam regime. This is in regards to the issue that more cities than Halabja were poisoned gassed. The new suburb is within site of the once war-torn village.

The suburb I visited up the foothills from Sulaymaniyah overlooks a city-scape you might see from a mountain view in Montana. A new mini-bus took me back to the old part of the city. As I and a friend exit the bus to walk the remainder of the way, we encounter all the commerce of an emerging society: Ethnic shoe and cloth shops; cafes; markets; school supplies; and shops offering just about every product one could imagine - old and new.

I am not a total sociological expert, but I suspect an encroaching middle class in a once Third-World region begs the seedlings of a nation state.

Bob Keith
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq

View more pictures from Bob's travels.