November 7, 2003

Marsh Arabs

Wonderful article on the Marsh Arabs of Iraq and the return of their way of life.

All that Sabiha Fadel has in the world is now stacked in the sun at the edge of the water. There isn't much of it.

Water is returning to the dried-up wetlands

"We were living in the desert with nothing," she said. "When the waters came back, we returned immediately. It's a gift from God."

During the 1990s, tens of thousands of people living in Iraq's southern marshlands were driven into destitution as Saddam Hussein dried up the water that had sustained a way of life dating back around 5,000 years.


Posted by DaveH at November 7, 2003 10:10 AM