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Iraq
The Society and Its Environment
IRAQI SOCIETY IS composed of sizable and distinct social groups
whose differences and divisions have been only slowly and fitfully
challenged by the emergence of a strong, centralized political
regime and state apparatus. Moreover, there are regional and environmental
differences between the scattered mountain villages whose economic
base is rain-fed grain crops and the more densely populated riverine
communities to the south that are dependent on intricate irrigation
and drainage systems for their livelihood.
There are also linguistic and ethnic differences. The most important
exception to the Arab character of Iraq is the large Kurdish minority,
estimated at 19 percent of the population, or 3,092,820 in 1987.
According to official government statistics, Turkomans and other
Turkic-speaking peoples account for only 2 to 3 percent of the
population. There was previously a large Iranian population settled
around the Shia (see Glossary) holy cities of Karbala and An Najaf,
and the southern port city of Basra; this element was largely
expelled by government decree in 1971-72 and 1979-80, and in 1987
only an estimated 133,000 or 0.8 percent of the Iranian population
remained.
Divisions along religious lines are deeprooted. Although upward
of 95 percent of Iraq's population is Muslim, the community is
split between Sunnis (see Glossary) and Shias; the latter group,
a minority in the Arab world as a whole, constitutes a majority
in Iraq. Numerous observers believe that the Shias make up between
60 and 65 percent of the inhabitants, although the data to support
this figure are not firm (official government statistics set the
number at only 55 percent). Of the non-Muslim communities, fragmented
Christian sects cannot be more than 1 or 2 percent, concentrated
mainly in the governorates of Nineveh and Dahuk. A formerly extensive
Jewish community is to all practical purposes defunct. The establishment
of the State of Israel in 1948 and the defeat of the Arab armies
in 1948-49 rendered the situation of Iraqi Jews untenable and
led to a mass exodus, both to Israel and to Iran in 1950.
Just before the Iran-Iraq War, the sharp cleavage between the
rural and urban communities that formerly characterized Iraqi
society had begun to break down as a result of policies instituted
by the government. The war has accelerated this process. Large
areas of the rural south have been devastated by continuous fighting,
which in turn has triggered a massive rural migration to the capital.
In the late 1980s, Iraqi and foreign observers agreed that for
the nation's economic health this flight from the countryside
would have to be reversed, and they anticipated that the government
would undertake measures to accomplish this reversal once the
war ended.
Data as of May 1988
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