A Severed Land and Peoples

In the shattered landscape of Iraq, where the rhythms of human existence once danced harmoniously with soil, water, and air, we encounter a profound rupture—a violent dislocation orchestrated by colonial legacies and relentless war. This terrain, now scarred by the machinic operations of terraforming and desertification, speaks not merely of ecological loss but of severed identities, each dry riverbed a whisper of histories unremembered. As the land is reduced to a commodity, the very essence of being is estranged, leaving us grappling with the remnants of a vibrant multiplicity that has been violently disrupted. In this space of fragmentation, the complexities of identity emerge, not as fixed entities but as processes of becoming, inviting a reclamation of our connections to the land and to each other, even as the specter of despair looms large. What remains is a palimpsest of new narratives waiting to be inscribed, where the echoes of the past converge with the potential of the future.