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Shafaq News
40 minutes ago
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Iraqi Parliament's Quota move silences Feyli Kurdish aspirations
Shafaq News The decision to reclassify the Kurdish Feyli quota seat in Iraq's parliament as a nationwide allocation—rather than limiting it to Wasit province—has ignited political and community backlash. What was once a symbolic recognition of the Feyli Kurds' historic presence in Wasit is now seen by many as a vulnerable tool of political bargaining, prompting renewed calls to restore the seat's provincial scope and expand representation for a community long subjected to marginalization and forced displacement. Enduring Legacy of Displacement and Exclusion The Kurdish Feylis suffered systematic persecution under the Ba'athist regime, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. They were targeted for their ethno-sectarian identity—being both Kurdish and Shiite—and labeled as 'foreigners' despite generations of residence in Iraq. Between 1970 and 1980, up to half a million Feylis were expelled to Iran. Many lost their citizenship, property, and civil rights. Over 15,000 young Feyli men disappeared during the purges, with their remains never recovered. Baghdad's elite Feyli business and academic circles were especially targeted. Despite the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, many returnees still face bureaucratic barriers in reclaiming their original citizenship or accessing legal rights. Historical and Political Context The Kurdish Feyli quota seat was originally established as a recognition of the community's longstanding presence in Wasit, particularly in cities like Kut, Al-Aziziyah, Al-Hai, Badrah, Zurbatiyah, and Jassan. Political activist Haidar Hisham al-Feyli explained that the seat was secured after a sustained campaign by Feyli activists and was initially meant to include three seats before being reduced to one for political reasons. 'This seat was meant to reflect the aspirations of the Feyli Kurds,' Hisham told Shafaq News. 'But now, instead of protecting their representation, it is being contested by figures outside the community due to weak safeguards and ineffective electoral oversight.' He stressed that the seat lacks clear legal protections and has been subjected to external interference, allowing candidates who are not Feyli Kurds to contest under the quota. This, he said, has diluted the seat's original purpose and fragmented the community's electoral voice. Kurdish Feyli MP Hussein Mardan stated that the Federal Court ruled that the Kurdish Feyli quota seat in the Iraqi parliament—out of a total of 329 seats—will be a national seat for all of Iraq does not benefit the Feyli component. 'If we assume that it must be a national seat, then at the very least the Feylis should be granted five seats, similar to the Christian component. A single national seat does not serve the Kurdish Feylis, especially considering that Feyli Kurdish candidates are not present across all Iraqi provinces,' He told Shafaq News. Legal and Institutional Gaps Critics highlight the failure of Iraq's electoral commission to enforce identity-specific quotas, allowing political maneuvering that jeopardizes minority rights. Rashid al-Budairi, a senior member of the 'Services (Khadamat)' political alliance, argued that this shift contradicts the historical justice intended for the Kurdish Feylis. 'They faced genocide, forced displacement, and systemic exclusion under the former regime.' 'Wasit should retain the seat as a matter of acquired and constitutional right. The recent move turns the quota into a bargaining chip, risking its appropriation by a single political faction.' Beyond the Quota While defending the quota's existence, some lawmakers also highlight the growing political engagement of Feyli Kurds outside the quota system. MP Bassem Nughaymish of Wasit noted that the community is not solely reliant on the reserved seat to enter the political arena. 'Feyli Kurds are full citizens of Wasit, not a minority in the traditional sense,' Nughaymish said. 'They have successfully contested general parliamentary elections and hold key posts in the provincial government.' According to Nughaymish, several key administrative roles in the province—such as municipal leadership in Kut and other directorates—are held by Feyli Kurds, reflecting their active participation in public life. He specifically mentioned Deputy Governor Nabil Shamma, the brother of renowned musician Naseer Shamma, as an example of the community's strong local presence. What's Next? With national elections on the horizon, the controversy over the Kurdish Feyli seat is likely to intensify. Calls for restoring the seat to Wasit and expanding the community's representation are gaining momentum among activists and political allies. However, unless electoral regulations are tightened and community-led representation is prioritized, the quota may become symbolic rather than substantive. 'Without legal safeguards and genuine political will,' Hisham warned, 'the quota will only serve as a façade, not a channel for real empowerment.' Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.
Shafaq News
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Legacy of Saddam-Era: How old laws cripple Iraq's legislative future
Shafaq News More than two decades after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the legacy of Iraq's dissolved Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) continues to obstruct the country's legislative development. Despite successive parliamentary sessions since 2005, many foundational laws remain stalled due to political disagreements and intra-bloc rivalries. This gridlock is exacerbated by the continued enforceability of thousands of RCC-era decrees—many considered outdated or repressive. Legislative Paralysis and RCC Residue At the end of each parliamentary term, unresolved legislative proposals are routinely carried over to the next, creating a backlog that hampers Iraq's ability to enact meaningful reform. According to officials, this stagnation is compounded by the survival of nearly 6,000 RCC decisions—some criticized for their authoritarian nature, particularly those establishing special courts or intensifying penalties under Iraq's legal code. Despite repeated calls from senior figures, including President Abdul Latif Rashid in 2023, for a comprehensive legal review, Parliament has largely failed to abolish or amend most of these decrees. Many remain legally binding under Article 130 of Iraq's constitution, despite clashing with international human rights norms and democratic principles. RCC's Institutional Legacy Formed after the 1968 Ba'athist coup, the Revolutionary Command Council served as Iraq's highest authority until its dissolution by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003. Under Saddam Hussein, the RCC wielded unchecked legislative and executive powers. Many of its rulings were instrumental in consolidating authoritarian rule and suppressing dissent. Legal experts estimate that 5,903 of these decisions are still in force. A joint committee between the Presidency and Parliament's Legal Committee was created to classify and review these decisions. Legal expert Ali al-Tamimi noted that RCC decrees even outnumber Iraq's key laws, including the Penal Code. 'They were issued under the 1970 interim constitution and remain in effect unless formally repealed,' he said, adding that most of these decrees were used to suppress political opposition and established exceptional courts that contradict international law. 'Parliament is capable of repealing them all at once or selectively amending a few.' Al-Tamimi also stressed that the current government's ministerial program explicitly calls for repealing RCC decisions that conflict with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaties. Efforts at Repeal and Political Resistance While Parliament has repealed select RCC decisions since 2007, broader repeal efforts have stalled. Raed al-Maliki, a member of the parliamentary legal committee, said he compiled and amended the RCC decisions and submitted a legislative proposal—but it was blocked. 'The Council is simply not prepared to address this file,' he told Shafaq News. Al-Maliki noted that while the current legislative session managed to pass some laws, including the General Amnesty Law and amendments to the Personal Status Law, it also witnessed repeated disruptions, session delays, and a stagnant agenda. 'Important laws carried over from previous terms were subject to political agreements,' even though such laws could be passed with a two-thirds majority without needing full consensus. He further explained that 'some draft laws face no disagreement within Parliament itself. The real disputes happen outside Parliament—among bloc leaders—who prevent such laws from being put to a vote.' In 2023, Legal Committee Head, Ribwar Hadi Abdul Rahman, announced renewed efforts to repeal RCC decrees through a new committee with the Presidency. He clarified that such decrees do not require replacement legislation. 'RCC decisions are not amended—they are either in force or abolished,' he said. Some initial steps focused on repealing decrees related to land disputes in Sinjar and Zummar. Additional efforts have targeted RCC-era confiscations of Kurdish and Turkmen lands in Kirkuk—widely viewed as part of the former regime's demographic manipulation strategy. One of the most enduring and contentious RCC legacies is Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, which remains largely intact. Articles 225 and 226 criminalize public insults to state institutions or officials, carrying penalties of up to seven years in prison. Ironically, these provisions have been applied to political forces once persecuted under Saddam's regime. Structural Barriers to Reform Legal expert Qatada Saleh Fanjan told Shafaq News that 'most important laws are subject to bargaining and consensus among political factions.' He noted that lawmakers often lack independent voting authority, as their decisions depend on the approval of party leaders. 'Parliament should focus on producing laws—not obstructing them,' he said, warning that 'the subordination of Parliament's leadership and its members to political agendas in conflict with the law has caused the failure of many legislative efforts.' Al-Maliki echoed this view, confirming that many laws remain hostage to factional calculations despite lacking real opposition within Parliament. The root of the obstruction, he emphasized, lies in political leadership outside the chamber. Political analyst Aid al-Hilali warned that lawmaking in Iraq remains hostage to sectarian and ethnic rivalries. 'There is no collective national will, and partisan interests often override the public good,' he said. Al-Hilali added that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has repeatedly tried to activate legislative reforms through his government program, but political blocs have continued to use outdated laws as bargaining tools, stalling or weakening many reform efforts. He cautioned that the delay in passing new laws and the persistence of RCC-era legislation 'not only harms the government's performance but also undermines public trust in the political system as a whole.' The continued coexistence of repressive legacy laws and stalled modern legislation, he argued, 'has created a confused legal environment that grants privileges to certain groups at the expense of justice and state institutions.' Written and edited by Shafaq New staff.
Iraqi News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Iraqi News
Iraqi protest in Baghdad demands cancellation of Khor Abdullah agreement
Baghdad ( – Hundreds of Iraqi activists and citizens staged a significant Iraqi protest on Sunday (July 27, 2025) in Eagles Square (Sahat Al-Nusoor), a prominent public space in western Baghdad. The demonstration focused on a singular demand: the outright cancellation of the Khor Abdullah agreement between Iraq and Kuwait. The Iraqi protest in Eagles Square, located in the Mansour district, saw participants raising banners and chanting slogans directly criticizing the government and various political entities. Their ire was directed at what they perceive as continued adherence to the Khor Abdullah agreement, an issue that has become a flashpoint for national sovereignty concerns. Activists from several southern governorates traveled to join the demonstration, indicating the widespread nature of the discontent. They also warned of an expanded scale of protests if their demands for the agreement's annulment are not met. The Khor Abdullah agreement, signed in 2012, is a maritime navigation accord between Iraq and Kuwait. It was framed as a technical and administrative response to the consequences of the 1990 invasion by Saddam Hussein's regime and the subsequent border demarcation mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 833 of 1993. Crucially, Article 6 of the agreement itself explicitly states that it 'does not affect the borders between the two parties in Khor Abdullah as determined by Security Council Resolution No. 833 of 1993.' The agreement's ratification law (Law No. 42 of 2013) was approved by the Iraqi Council of Ministers in late 2012 and subsequently by the Council of Representatives with a simple majority. This specific ratification process has since been the subject of legal challenges, with the Federal Court issuing a decision that lawmakers assert invalidates the legal basis for its implementation in Iraq. This ongoing legal and political dispute fuels the public sentiment reflected in the Iraqi protest today.
NDTV
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- NDTV
In Bed With Satan, Roaming Naked In Desert: Trump Roasted By South Park
New Delhi: American animated television series South Park has returned with one of its most provocative episodes to date, taking direct aim at Donald Trump and, by extension, its own network's parent company, Paramount Global. The season 27 premiere's depiction of Trump was reminiscent of the show's earlier Saddam Hussein portrayal. The episode arrives at a time when Paramount is under scrutiny for its recent $16-million settlement with Trump, who sued the company over an edited interview on CBS's 60 Minutes. The settlement came just as the media giant was seeking regulatory approval for an $8 billion merger, a move critics have reportedly labelled a capitulation. In this backdrop, South Park pulled no punches. The episode opens with Cartman lamenting Trump's decision to strip funding from NPR, ironically complaining the government 'can't cancel a show.' Trump's animated counterpart is introduced shortly after. The episode shows Trump literally in bed with Satan, his lover, using real photos of the US President awkwardly superimposed onto an animated body. It is the same treatment Saddam Hussein got in the 1999 South Park movie, with Satan even saying that Trump and Saddam were 'exactly alike,' according to a report in USA Today. In the episode, Trump is portrayed as a thin-skinned bully threatening legal action against anyone who crosses him. One of the episode's most pointed scenes features the fictional version of 60 Minutes, whose hosts visibly panic as they report on Trump. They utter lines like 'Oh boy, oh s***, oh God' while a ticking time bomb plays on screen, a direct reference to the lawsuit that led to the real-life CBS settlement, The Guardian reported. The plot centres on the supposed 'death of wokeness' and Trump's push to bring Christianity back into schools, sending Jesus to physically appear at the boys' classroom, reported USA Today. Jesus warns the townspeople, saying, 'You saw what happened to CBS. You want to end up like Colbert? Just shut up or we're going to be cancelled.' The episode ends with a sequence featuring a deepfake version of Trump wandering through a desert, disrobing. As he collapses in the sand naked, his animated genitalia, complete with eyes and a mouth, delivers the line, 'I'm Donald J Trump and I approve this message.' A voiceover adds, 'His penis is teeny tiny, but his love for us is large.' The timing is complex. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are currently in the middle of a $1.5-billion deal with Paramount+, giving the streamer exclusive rights to the show for the next five years. That places the company in a difficult position, whether to stand by its flagship satire or appease a powerful political figure who could obstruct its business ambitions. A day after airing the episode, Parker and Stone offered a cheeky response to the backlash. 'We're terribly sorry,' Parker said with a sly grin during a Comic-Con animation panel alongside Stone, 'Beavis and Butt-Head' creator Mike Judge, and 'Digiman' creator Andy Samberg, according to USA Today.
Fast Company
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Trump gets the ‘real face' treatment in blistering ‘South Park' satire
President Trump has mocked Stephen Colbert's cancellation and even sued 60 Minutes. Still, the writers of South Park don't seem too worried about potentially becoming his next target. After skipping the 2024 election season, Comedy Central's long-running animated show is back on air for its 27th season, just in time to cover President Trump's second term in office. While the series—whose creators just closed a $1.5 billion streaming deal —has not shied away from mocking pop culture and political figures in the past (previous iterations of Trump as president include 'Mr. Garrison,' a school teacher who later runs for president against Hillary Clinton and wins), the creators are directly targeting the current president this season, going as far as using his real face in place of their traditional animated renderings. In a short 22 minutes, the episode touched on the some of the most controversial recent events in the past few weeks, including tariffs on Canada, the Jeffrey Epstein case, the Paramount-Skydance merger, and CBS's cancellation of The Late Show. To top it off, a scene of the naked president features a small penis (albeit a cartoon one), twisting the knife even more. Comedy Central, where the series airs, is owned by Paramount Global. Real-life faces are back Skipping a caricaturized version of the president, South Park opted to use a real image of Trump, cut open like a marionette when speaking, although the artistic choice is famously not new. In the past, the show has opted for real-life-picture cutouts of certain celebrities and public figures—including some infamous ones. The series website describes such portrayals as 'more of a personal decision' from the show's creators. According to fan roundups collected online, the celebrities and public figures who have been featured with their real-life cutouts include Ben Affleck, Tony Danza, Christina Aguilera, Jeffrey Dahmer, Gene Siskel, Princess Diana, Adolf Hitler, Walter Matthau, Allen Ginsberg, Tiny Tim, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., Mao Zedong, Michael Landon, Jerry Garcia, Saddam Hussein, Mel Gibson, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, and now, notably, Donald Trump. In addition to bringing back the marionette like real-life cutout, the show also revived its in-bed-with-satan trope. Trump is pictured undressing before climbing into bed with the devil, an apparent ode to the show's 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which featured Saddam Hussein in a similar situation. Not everyone is happy about the episode While many users on social media have praised South Park 's season debut, those in support of the president seem less content with the episode. 'South Park has gone woke. They must go broke,' reads a typical response on X. As expected, the current administration is also not delighted with the show's creative direction. Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, told Entertainment Weekly that the 'show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.' Trump has yet to directly respond to the episode. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
