A new wave of protest in Iraq has forced the government to acknowledge fundamental problems with the sectarian power-sharing agreement.

Ali Issa

This August, a harsh heat wave across Iraq came alongside electricity blackouts, sending tens of thousands of people onto the streets in an ongoing protest. Six weeks of massive — and still growing — rallies across central and southern Iraq called not merely for reliable electricity, but for an end to the sectarian power-sharing agreement that many consider to be the culprit behind ongoing problems in Iraq. This sectarian system had been set up by U.S. envoy Paul Bremer in 2003, and mandates “power sharing” among representatives from Iraq’s many religious and ethnic communities at every level of government. Popular unrest against this system has gripped the country for the past decade because — among other faults — it so clearly disrupted politics across Iraq’s ethnic and religious divides. This time, with people at his doorstep, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claimed to hear them. He proposed reforms to “distance all top government posts from sectarian and party quotas.”

Religious sect is a real force in Iraqi society, all the more since regional players have poured billions into hyper-sectarian militias and media outlets. At the same time, Iraqis have consistently fought against the imposition of a quota system for government positions, as well as the culture of animosity that political sectarianism brings. Iraqis identify politically and socially in many ways — geographically, generationally and ideologically. They organize for gender justice, public sector jobs, cultural flourishing, environmental protection and more. Faith is only one aspect of these identities, though one that the world seems obsessed with boxing Iraqis into.

“We want an end to this sectarian quota system,” Uday al-Zaidi, the brother of famed shoe-thrower and journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi, told me back in 2011. That was in the midst of one of Iraq’s earlier protest moments, when the al-Zaidi brothers played a prominent role in leading calls for Iraqi unity and independence from the United States and regional powers, most prominently the Iranian government. And that’s just one example.

Read more from the source: WAGING NONVIOLENCE