Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space by

Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space

Page: 272
Format: pdf, ePub, mobi, fb2
ISBN: 9781108838795
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Download Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space

Top ebooks free download Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space

Overview

Examining the relationship between a strengthened Iraqi state under the Baʿth regime and the Assyrians, a Christian ethno-religious group, Alda Benjamen studies the role of minorities in twentieth-century Iraqi political and cultural history. Relying on extensive research in Iraq, including sources uncovered at the Iraqi National Archives in Baghdad, as well as in libraries and private collections in Erbil, Duhok, and Mosul, in Arabic and modern Aramaic, Benjamen foregrounds the Iraqi periphery as well as the history of bilingualism to challenge the monolingual narrative of the state. By exploring the role of Assyrians in Iraq's leftist and oppositional movements, including gendered representations of women, she demonstrates how, within newly politicized urban spaces, minorities became attracted to intellectual and political movements that allowed them to advance their own concerns while engaging with other Iraqis of their socio-economic background and relying on transnational community networks. Assyrian intellectuals not only negotiated but also resisted government policies through their cultural production, thereby achieving a softening of Baʿthist policies towards the Assyrians that differed markedly from those of later repressive eras.

Items