The October 'Revolution'

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Unlike other protests in Iraq, the October Revolution’ or the ‘Tishreen Revolution’ as protestors called them, were different. They had widespread support from large sections of Iraqi society. They represented, perhaps for the first time since 2003, a popular demonstration that was not infiltrated or represented by political parties. Indeed, unlike many other demonstrations, the October 2019 protests did not see the participation of ruling political parties. Muqatada al Sadr, having participated in Tahrir Square’s protests, had in the wake of 2018 national elections, won with the support of parts of the Iraqi Communist Party, the single largest bloc in parliament and therefore had no interest in supporting demonstrations as his political movement had itself now assumed several positions in Government. Those protests were ostensibly organised by people rather than political parties and therefore represented a key moment where ordinary people could mobilise in ways free of organised political party activity. For these reasons, they were supported by large swathes of the Iraqi population, including civil society activists, trade unions, journalists and students who formed its participants. Significantly, hundreds of Iraqi artists of various backgrounds – whether established and socially recognised, amateur or students of art - joined and participated in these protests, which they had not been the case before. 

The October 2019 protestors were met, however, with fierce levels of generalised but also targeted violence which started within the first few days. About 800 protestors were killed and over 20,000 injured within a matter of one year from October 2019, most within the first three months. The assassinations, which started long before October 2019, have only risen in number and continued long after protests ended. Artists who participated directly in the protests, whether in creating murals or other types of art, did so to great risk to themselves. They risked their lives and endured severe levels of stress in the fear that they could be kidnapped or attacked. Collectively, artists who participated directly in the protests felt a great deal of trepidation and uncertainty, particularly as protestors in Tahrir Square were being physically attacked in the form of live ammunition and the use of gas cannisters, which were used to deliberately target protestors and cause physically harm rather than as a measure of protest control. 

Violations on the physical body have come to be represented in a great deal of the artwork in Iraq, often vividly depicted with a gas canister lodged in a protestors’ head, an image that had become emblematic of this period. Indeed, the October 2019 protests threatened the vested interests of Iraq’s post-2003 political elites, including in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and were met with killings, kidnappings, and other violent human rights injustices, which were the main ways in which security forces responded to calls demanding political change. 

''I am using my art to increase that gap between politicians and society. We use our art to raise awareness. I am not a politician, but I am doing what I can to make people aware. I know some of the people who are interested in politics, and they came out of the protests and will work politically'' - Iraqi artist from Wasit. 

Artists who participated in those protests were also threatened by armed groups many months after the end of mass demonstrations. In interviews. those artists were viewed as a continuing threat to ruling political elites, who either mostly stayed silent about gross human rights violations or worked directly to undermine protestors in late 2019 and throughout 2020 and 2021. This binding tread of commonality of the anguish, anxieties but also hopes for a better Iraq that we see in artistic creation embodies the spirit of Iraq’s October 2019 protests.