Beyond the embellished representations of Baghdad, whether romantic or horrific, lies a city striving to remake itself in the wake of multiple crises. For decades, the Iraqi capital has been an epicenter of major regional and global conflicts—a gruesome history that has visibly and morally worn down Baghdad and its people, irrevocably unravelling the once-celebrated city. In recent years, Baghdad has experienced a post-war construction boom alongside a series of crises, each compounding the other. Environmental degradation, sectarian conflicts, unprecedented gaps in urban infrastructure and services, and restricted access to land and housing are just a few of Baghdad’s troubles, but all pose significant challenges to the city’s governing institutions. Since the 2003 US invasion, the city’s fractured structure of governance has been heavily influenced by sectarian politics and corruption.1 This has directly shaped the urban development of Baghdad, especially the political economy of land and housing, and is most visible in the transformation of Baghdad’s public spaces, as well as in how public and private interests are simultaneously shaping these spaces and the uncertain future of Iraqis.
Since 2003, Baghdad has been transformed into a city fragmented by checkpoints. Armed soldiers and concrete T-walls separate various areas and neighborhoods. This fragmentation is primarily driven by sectarian divisions between Sunnis and Shi’as, particularly following the violence of the 2006-2008 civil war, which reshaped the entire capital and has left very few areas that are diverse in terms of ethnicity, religion, and sect.2 Within this “militarized city,” where despair and a lack of public services are pervasive, consumerist spaces like malls and restaurants have become a dominant feature of postwar reconstruction for their promise of safety and unity to Iraqis.3 But reorienting the post-war city and its people toward consumerist culture is engendering further social, political, and environmental cleavages, and poses another set of threats both to the city’s urban character and to its peoples’ sense of place.
Baghdad Through Dreams and Crises
Burdened and privileged with its historical position as one of the most important centers of the Arab world, Baghdad has long been the site of elaborate projections of Iraq’s modern nation-building. From the era of the Iraqi monarchy (1921–1958) to the establishment of the Iraqi Republic (1958–1968), successive governments have imprinted their aspirations upon the city, be it through tangible landmarks or unrealized dreams. One of the most well-known projects is Frank Lloyd Wright’s unrealized plan for a Greater Baghdad, commissioned in 1957 under King Faisal II. Wright proposed to build a cultural hub on an island in the Tigris River, with an opera house, museums, a university, shopping malls, and a 300-foot statue of the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809), under whose rule Baghdad flourished and became a prominent world capital.4
Frank Lloyd Wright’s plan for Greater Baghdad,1957–58. Credit: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, New York.
Grand urban visions of this kind reached a crescendo with the rise of Saddam Hussein in 1979 and the oil boom of the 1980s. Hussein’s vision to “return” Baghdad to its Abbasid-era (750–1258 AD) glory swept the city, and his government aspired to bolster its power by promoting Baghdad to a global audience.5 Dedicated symposia were held to discuss the city’s urban and architectural future, and a consortium of local and international architects produced various plans and projects to modernize Baghdad’s historic core and give it a government-prescribed facelift.6
Here and there, Baghdad’s history was loosely referenced in some of the architectural proposals of the time. Arthur Erickson’s unbuilt Abu Nawas Conservation Development Project (1981), for instance, drew inspiration from Abbasid architecture and sought to redevelop the banks of the Tigris River with gardens, water fountains, and an artificial lake.7 While the architectural discourse of the time alluded to heritage preservation and historical inspiration, some of the traditional quarters and historic streets in Baghdad would have been demolished to make way for the new redevelopment plan and rapid urban growth.8
During this oil-funded construction boom, iconic monuments such as the Victory Arch and the Martyr’s Monument were built, along with the luxurious Al Rasheed Hotel, Babylon Hotel, and Sheraton. However, within a few years, this surge of construction began to slow, and eventually came to a halt, due to funding shortages caused by the eight-year Iran–Iraq war (1980–1988). From that point onward, Iraq and its capital have faced a series of challenges: the Gulf War in the 1990s, subsequent sanctions, and finally the 2003 US invasion and its aftermath. While each of these episodes significantly impacted Baghdad, the US invasion delivered an especially devastating blow to the capital’s social fabric and its infrastructure.
Still, in the early days of the US bombing of Iraq, reconstruction plans for Baghdad were being imagined by exiled Iraqi architects, US occupiers, and foreign investors. Ten days after the launch of the invasion, the late Iraqi architect Mohamed Makiya stressed the need to “green” Baghdad and called for the planting of 25 million trees as a top priority in Baghdad’s reconstruction.9 A year later, US-based Hisham Ashkouri announced the Baghdad Renaissance Plan (BRP) to redevelop the bank of the Tigris River into a central business district. The unactualized plan was likened to Dubai, and commentators stated that the plan would turn central Baghdad into a “vibrant hub.”10 Already in power and without the need to project visions and dreams, the US occupiers restructured the Iraqi government and economy and actively embarked on a market-led reconstruction, selling billions of dollars’ worth of reconstruction contracts to international companies.11 The yield on these contracts remains highly contested.12
Money exchanged hands and images were exhibited to foreign investors, all while Baghdad was being disfigured.13 The US occupation inflamed sectarian tensions and precipitated a civil war that radically divided the previously mixed capital into sectarian enclaves. Not only was Baghdad segregated along sectarian lines, but also the ten-square-kilometer Green Zone—Iraq’s seat of government, also called “Little America”—was closed off to ordinary citizens. This zone, previously known as Karadat Maryam, had been practically off-limits to citizens since the Ba’thist era (1968–2003), and US troops solidified this isolation by expanding and blockading the area. Baghdad became a city of fragments.
All Under One Roof
As it spiraled into invasion-instigated chaos, the image of Baghdad was becoming synonymous with terror and violence. Foreign and, later, local actors relied on market-oriented reconstruction projects to salvage perceptions of the invasion and of the city.14 Researcher Omar Sirri’s study on the post-2003 socio-spatial transformation of Baghdad reveals that, during Nouri al-Maliki’s two terms as prime minister (2006–2014), state-owned lands in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities underwent rampant privatization. These deals were conducted with little to no public knowledge, and the main beneficiaries have been political-economic elites—those tied to political parties and parastatal armed groups.15 One of the direct implications of this land appropriation for Baghdad’s reconstruction was the development of new consumer spaces.
In the spring of 2012, a multistorey department store called MaxiMall was inaugurated in the Adhamiyah neighborhood—one of the main theaters of the bloody sectarian civil war that ripped Baghdad apart. With a $3 million investment from Turkish contractors, it was constructed upon former farmland.16 Adel Al-Omran, whose family owned the farm and who would go on to be MaxiMall’s manager, shared, “Baghdadis have a thing for places like this where you can sit outside and it’s safe for the children to play. It’s nice here, with the breeze from the river, especially in summer.”17 He suggests that the mall evokes more pleasant, prewar times, when Iraqis could enjoy the outdoors and a sense of safety. Apart from its rooftop terrace, the mall is enclosed and indoors.
Shopping malls are not new to Baghdad. In the 1980s, state authorities constructed and managed several central markets, which were meant to enable, and possibly consolidate, access to imported goods.18 However, the US sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s led to the closure of almost all these marketplaces until 2003, when at least two were occupied and repurposed as Forward Operating Bases by the US military.19 The entanglement of the military and malls was not limited to marketplaces turning into military bases. In the early years of US occupation, military malls catering to US soldiers were set up in their bases. These stripped-down shopping trailers run by Iraqis, Turks, and others were described as a slice of “home” for the soldiers.20 Hence, the arrival of MaxiMall signaled the beginning of a new trend in a city recovering from years of sectarian conflict, violence, and insurgency. New American-style shopping malls with shiny glass facades promoted the glamour of the Western shopping experience and countered the damaged and destroyed infrastructure that was neglected by governing authorities.
In the aftermath of the painful civil war, the shopping mall came to be seen as an omen of peace and stability. MaxiMall, for example, was viewed as a place where Sunnis, Shias, and Christians could temporarily coexist, or, at least, shop side by side. Its neighbor, Mansour Mall, opened in 2013 on the eve of Daesh’s rise, and was also celebrated for this reason. As Daesh’s war in Iraq (2013–2017) persecuted, killed, and expelled Iraqi Christians, minorities, as well as some Sunnis and Shias, Mansour Mall’s elaborate Christmas decorations verged on the subversive, with a conspicuous Christmas tree soaring over the mall entrance and colorful decorations adorning the interiors. According to an Iraqi professor, “We can’t display these things everywhere in Baghdad … This mall is a place where all the communities meet.”21 Shopping malls continue to celebrate the Christmas season today.22
International coverage of Baghdad’s malls optimistically proclaimed that they were a sign of normalcy and hope for the war-ravaged city. Though malls are unaffordable to a large segment of society (25% of the Iraqi population lives below the poverty line), thousands of visitors still enjoy knock-off fast food restaurants, such as Krunchy Fried Chicken, and Hollywood movies in the cinemas.23
As the mall offered a much-needed sense of respite for many, its development was prioritized over the repair of the city and fundamental public needs, such as healthcare and education. Babylon Mall, to take another example, opened in 2017 on the site of a neglected park, where a metro station from the long-delayed Baghdad metro project was slated to be built.24 The metro was first announced in 2011, and its completion would have marked a quantum leap in Baghdad’s quality of life, reconnecting segregated residents and neighborhoods and alleviating the city’s chronic traffic problems. Millions of dollars have been allocated to this project since its announcement, but over a decade later, construction has yet to begin. Shopping malls seem to top the urban recovery agenda, redirecting reconstruction efforts and showing the imbalance of political will and investment in the city.
A Quick Fix for Underdevelopment
With over ten malls built in the last decade and a few more currently under construction, the shopping mall has become the poster child of Baghdad’s postwar reconstruction. Through checkpointed entrances and constant surveillance, malls simulate a sense of peace and safety for many Baghdadis whose spatial imaginaries are shaped by violence and insecurity.25 People flock to malls to relish their welcome, fleeting distractions, while investors and developers take advantage of this sigh of relief to shore up the will and money to build mall after mall. Many of these malls are located in the commercial districts of Mansour and Karrada, as well as around the elite Green Zone—now a highly securitized area housing governmental institutions such as the parliament, ministries, the US embassy, and other foreign embassies and agencies. The Green Zone is the only area where electricity is available 24 hours a day, in contrast to the rest of the capital, where the state provides unreliable and limited hours of electricity.26 The piecemeal and mall-led approach to Baghdad’s postwar reconstruction has been endorsed by the government body overseeing the city’s investment projects, the Baghdad Investment Commission. The commission has described the mall as “a civilized aspect reflecting contemporary sensibility and urban development.”27
Together totaling over 100,000 square meters, Baghdad Mall and Mansour Mall have been built less than two kilometers apart, worsening traffic and disturbing residents in the surrounding areas.28 These malls were built between 2013 and 2017 and helped to re-inscribe Mansour’s neighborhood identity as an entertainment district for middle and upper-class Baghdadis.29 Yet the pace of shopping mall developments remains at odds with the city’s war-impacted cultural and ecological heritage. On the one hand, some shopping malls in Baghdad allude to and adopt symbols of Iraq’s cultural identity and rich history. At Babylon Mall, for example, the facade features four Babylonian-style sculptures looking down on the visitors and shoppers. On the other hand, these malls often threaten Baghdad’s cultural and ecological heritage. To build the upcoming 500,000-square-meter Iraq Mall, Baghdad’s few remaining palm orchards are being razed—an erasure that climate-vulnerable postwar Iraq cannot afford.30
After decades of war and devastation, Baghdad is still striving toward recovery, racing to catch up. Across the Arab region, shiny, sanitized malls epitomize modern progress, reflecting contemporary consumerist culture and a Western lifestyle. In the past decades, shopping malls in many Arab countries have evolved beyond places of consumption to become hubs for a variety of leisure activities. Many mega malls in the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia feature multiplex cinemas, restaurants, play areas, and recreational facilities. Inspired by these examples, Baghdad adopted shopping malls as a convenient tool to quickly restore the war-torn image of the city both locally and internationally. In this process, Baghdad’s regional neighbors have supported the city’s development of shopping malls. For instance, Turkish contractors were involved in the construction of both Mansour Mall and Baghdad Mall.31 Still, shopping malls in nearby countries, such as the UAE, rose in popularity due to situated and specific historical and economic circumstances, namely the presence of private capital and coordinated private-public real estate partnerships.32 In Baghdad, shopping malls emerge within a tumultuous post-war context, wherein state institutions have been weakened and social ties need intentional reparation efforts.
Re-building Baghdad in the Street
While these top-down changes were being launched and implemented, Baghdadis were creating their own alternative visions of the city, ones anchored in their right to the city. These efforts, which often addressed immediate post-war needs, gave precedence to the repair of both the urban and social fabrics, and opened up meaningful opportunities for their healing. Even during the sectarian civil war, different neighborhoods mitigated their spatial and social isolation by establishing small groceries and food stands, arranging a system of electricity generators, and setting up neighborhood watches to guard against terrorist attacks. Through efforts such as these, they became self-sufficient in the face of the war’s countless adversities.33
To uplift the postwar city, civilians formed volunteer groups like Iraq Builders and Imprint of Hope to build houses for internally displaced persons, repair damaged homes and schools, paint murals on separation walls, and clean green spaces.34 Student volunteers have been instrumental in restoring and refurbishing important streets and cleaning areas affected by terrorist attacks.35 Youth organizers have also set up free events in public spaces. The annual “I am Iraqi, I read” festival, which is held in the public Abu Nawas Park, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, distributing thousands of books for free.36 The non-governmental organization Tarkib also hosts the annual Baghdad Walk art festival, through which artists recount stories of different corners of the city, insisting on their presence in a city rapidly eaten up by privatization.37
The vested interest of ordinary Iraqis in reviving Baghdad was most noticeably on display during the October 2019 protests. Thousands of Iraqis from all walks of life occupied the riverside Turkish Restaurant building, instigating the months-long October Revolution. Built during the early 1980s construction boom, the fourteen-story building had been abandoned since US forces bombed it in 2003. Protesters breathed new life into this desolate building overlooking the exclusive Green Zone, resourcefully supplying it with sanitation facilities and electricity. Protestors also set up libraries, theaters, recreation areas, and local markets under the slogan “Inryd In‘ysh” (“We want to live”).38 Nearby, on the banks of the Tigris—a popular site for many architects and planners’ designs over the past decades—the protestors founded “Tahrir Beach” (Liberation Beach), where families and youth could hang out and relax.39
Scene from Tahrir Beach, October 2019. Credit: Baghdad Tahrir Art.
In these lush manifestations of a Baghdad that caters to its people and represents their wishes, Iraqis reject the stagnation of the capital, remaking it in the spirit of community and revitalizing public space. They painted dreamy murals that echoed their demands for a different Iraq on public infrastructure, tunnels, and walls, while reclaiming, recovering, and repairing their city center.40 Often described as unprecedented, the October 2019 protests eventually tapered off due to the government crackdown. Although these protests transformed parts of the city into vibrant citizen playgrounds, whether their demands and visions for the city’s urban trajectory will be considered remains to be seen. Still, a bright spot in the memories of many Iraqis, these protests shone a light on the glaring gap between the people’s visions for the city and those of the ruling class.
Over a decade into the reconstruction, Baghdad and much of Iraq continue to suffer from a lack of essential services and infrastructures, while existing structures are left in a state of neglect and decay. Over 2,500 buildings in Iraq are “on the verge of collapse.”41 In the capital, not one new road has been built in over forty years.42 While the city continues to be parceled out for the profit of the political elites and militia groups, Baghdad remains unequipped to meet the demands of its growing population. Despite this, some glimmers of hope can be seen.43 The historic Al Mutanabbi Street, devastated in a 2007 explosion, has been restored. Additionally, in December 2022, the Mayoralty of Baghdad unveiled the City Comprehensive Development Plan (CCDP) for Baghdad 2030, designed by the Lebanese firm Khatib and Alami.44 This ten-year strategy aims to improve infrastructure and land use while preserving the city’s heritage. However, the plan’s implementation remains uncertain due to the fractured governance structure that perpetuates sectarian tensions. 45
Foreign actors are also investing in Baghdad’s future. As part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese companies have shown interest in projects like the Baghdad Metro and the redevelopment of Al Nisour Square.46 Iraq received $10.5 billion in BRI funding in 2021 and was named the top recipient of BRI funding that year.47 Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has launched a $3 billion investment unit focused on infrastructure and real estate in Iraq and signed a $1 billion contract to build Baghdad Avenue, which includes plans for Iraq’s largest mall.48
These ambitious projects highlight Baghdad’s potential for renewal, yet the city’s reconstruction so far has often been underpinned by political and economic corruption and flashy developments like shopping malls. This evokes other periods of urban change, but the cumulative effects of recent conflicts demand a different approach, one that requires structural political changes. The October 2019 protests and the ongoing degradation of the city raise questions about the effectiveness and sustainability of these developments for alleviating Baghdad’s postwar challenges.
Taif Alkhudary, “How Iraq’s Sectarian System Came to Be,” Al Jazeera, March 29, 2020, ➝; Deniz Gökalp, “Regime Change: Neoliberal State Building and Its Collapse on Iraqi Society,” in International Security and Peacebuilding: Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, ed. Abu Bakarr Bah (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 170–98; Sajad Jiyad, “Corruption Is Strangling Iraq,” The Century Foundation, December 14, 2022, ➝.
Omar Sirri, “Seeing the Political in Baghdad’s Shopping Malls,” LSE Middle East Centre Blog (blog), January 9, 2020, ➝.
Zahra Ali, “Reflecting on Multiple Fragmentations in a City of Men,” Jadaliyya, November 15, 2017, ➝.
“When Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Make Eden in Iraq,” Phaidon (blog), June 14, 2017.
Hadani Ditmars, “A Dream for Baghdad,” Architectural Review (blog), June 20, 2016, ➝.
Ghada Al Slik, “Baghdad… Images and Memories,” in City of Mirages: Baghdad, from Wright to Venturi, 1952-1982 (Universitat Polytechnica De Catalunya, 2008), 49–72; Waleed Alsadoon, “Rebuilding Baghdad: A Half-Century of International Urban Plans for the Historic Capital of Iraq” (Ph.D diss., SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2020).
Ditmars, “A Dream for Baghdad.”
Zach Mortice, “Baghdad Through the Lens of an Iraqi Architect,” Architect Magazine, October 18, 2016, ➝.
Martin Bright, “After the Bombs, a Dream of Palm Trees for Baghdad,” The Guardian, March 30, 2003, ➝.
Khalid Mustafa Medani, “State Rebuilding in Reverse” (Middle East Research and Information Project, September 6, 2004), ➝.
Hideki Matsunaga, “Getting Reconstruction Right and Wrong: Lessons from Iraq,” Brookings, October 1, 2019, ➝.
Dave Whyte, “The Crimes of Neo-Liberal Rule in Occupied Iraq,” The British Journal of Criminology 47, no. 2 (March 1, 2007): 177–95; Yousef K. Baker, “Global Capitalism and Iraq: The Making of a Neoliberal State,” International Review of Modern Sociology 40, no. 2 (2014): 121–48.
Omar Sirri, “Destructive Creations: Social-Spatial Transformations in Contemporary Baghdad,” LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series, February 2021.
Beaumont, “Baghdad’s Fancy Shopping Malls Peddle a Better Future?”
Sirri, “Destructive Creations.”
Sirri, “Destructive Creations.”
Tina Susman, “In Iraq, the Tough Can Go Shopping at Military Malls,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2007, ➝.
Erin Cunningham, “Where to Go Christmas Shopping in Baghdad,” Washington Post, December 23, 2014, ➝.
Katie Forster, “Iraq’s Muslims Celebrate Christmas in Solidarity with Christians,” The Independent, December 25, 2016, ➝.
Fadhel al-Nashmi, “A Quarter of Iraq’s Population Lives Below the Poverty Line,” Asharq Al-Awsat, January 11, 2023, ➝.
Sirri, “Seeing the Political in Baghdad’s Shopping Malls.”
Sirri, “Destructive Creations.”
Zahra Ali, “Reflecting on Multiple Fragmentations in a City of Men,” Jadaliyya, November 15, 2017, ➝.
Quoted in Yaseen Raad, “A Spatial History of a Main Baghdadi Street,” Jadaliyya, October 27, 2015, ➝.
Ashwaq Alomare and Tahrir AL-Musawi, “The Impact of Urban Infill: A Study of Contemporary Malls in Baghdad,” Diyala Journal of Engineering Sciences 15 (June 1, 2022): 50–63.
Omar Sirri, “Siting the State: Intersections of Space, Religion, and Political Economy in Baghdad,” in POMEPS Studies 35: Religion, Violence, and the State in Iraq (2019), 33–37, ➝.
Jane Arraf and Yasmine Mosimann, “Baghdad Loses Green Space to Real Estate Boom,” New York Times, January 31, 2023, ➝.
Hadeel al Sayegh, “Baghdad Mall a Bright Spot for City yet Problems Still Much in Evidence,” The National, April 22, 2012, ➝.
Anna Klingmann, “The Rise of Shopping Malls within the Framework of Gulf Capitalism,” in The Phenomenon of Malls, ed. Andres Lepik and Vera Simone Baader (Berlin: Hatje Kantz, 2016).
Namariq Al-Rawi, “The Recovery of Baghdad’s Neighborhoods in the Aftermath of ‘Al-Taifiyah’ Sectarian Conflict,” in Urban Recovery: Intersecting Displacement With Postwar Reconstruction, ed. Huwaidā al- Ḥāriṯī (London: Routledge, 2021).
Hadani Ditmars, “Iraqis Defy Sectarianism through Urban Planning, Art,” Middle East Institute, August 30, 2016, ➝.
Aymen Al-Ameri, “I Am Iraqi, I Read Festival Celebrates Its 10th Year in Baghdad,” The National, November 14, 2023, ➝.
Marta Bellingreri, “Doing the Baghdad Walk: Art Tour Highlights Creativity in the Heart of Iraq,” The Guardian, May 5, 2024, ➝.
Zahra Ali, “The 2019 Iraqi Uprising and the Feminist Imagination,” TNI Longreads (blog), October 12, 2021, ➝.
Taif Alkhudary, “‘We Want a Country’: The Urban Politics of the October Revolution in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square,” Third World Quarterly (December 2, 2022): 1–17.
Many of these murals can be seen on Baghdad Tahrir Art, see ➝.
“Iraq Infrastructure in Decay, Buildings at Risk of Collapse,” The New Arab, March 26, 2023, ➝.
“Iraq Infrastructure in Decay, Buildings at Risk of Collapse.”
“The Reconstruction of Baghdad — in Pictures,” The National, May 2023, ➝.
Mayoralty of Baghdad “Al-mukhatat al-’inma’y al-shaml lmadinat Baghdad (Comprehensive Development Plan for the city of Baghdad),” 2022 (accessed August 8, 2023; page inactive as of this writing).
Mayoralty of Baghdad. “Al-mukhatat al-’inma’y al-shaml lmadinat Baghdad 2030 mlakhs al-taqreer al-niha’y (Comprehensive Development Plan for the city of Baghdad 2030 Summary of final report),” 2020, ➝ (accessed August 8, 2023; page inactive as of this writing).
Amr Salem, “China Railway Shows Interest in Taking Part in Baghdad Metro,” Iraqi News, February 19, 2024, ➝; Ministry of Planning, “Wizarat al-tkhtit tatla’ midaniyan ‘ala mashrou’ tsmim w tnfidh w ttwir sahat al nusur bbghdad (Ministry of Planning inspects the design, execution, and development of Nisour Square in Baghdad),” September 12, 2023, ➝.
“Iraq Was Top Target of China’s Belt & Road in 2021- Study,” Reuters, February 2, 2022, ➝.
New Silk Roads is a project by e-flux Architecture in collaboration with the Critical Media Lab at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW and Noema Magazine (2024), and Aformal Academy with the support of Design Trust and Digital Earth (2020).
