Focusing on narratives of the people, As sectarianism continues to play an important role in Iraqi politics today, we want to shed light on the time when sectarianism in Iraq was in its most violent time, which is after the US invasion from 2006-2009. With no social media or mobile phones in Iraq at that time, little has been archived. We would like to highlight what happened among us, how militias started to gain power and become violent and how this led to their rule today. How did they manipulate society? How did they divide different groups in society?

• Our dialogue today is with the political activist and academic Muhammad Hattab, who is interested in the political and historical affairs of Iraq and the founder of the “Enlightenment” team for political and cultural dialogues.