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Integrating Comprehensive, Cross-community History with Reconciliation and Heritage Protection

Integrating Comprehensive, Cross-community History with Reconciliation and Heritage Protection


Directed by Dr Ahmed M. Tanash Mohaebs of Qadissiyah University with partners at the Arab Human Rights Academy

Historical sites in Iraq are places of political contest. Being able to establish historical presence in a site, and tying this to an overarching identity, allows groups to claim a space as their own. It also allows them to profit through tourism and establish international links with larger political or religious groups. This, however, can warp the historical character of a site, can lead to the destruction of historical artefacts, and can also create inter-community resentment. This project will investigate and write a comprehensive history of a politically contested shrine using documentary and oral sources from Iraqi Shia, local Iraqi and Iraqi Jewish communities. It will also recognize that the contested history of the shrine means that effective preservation requires community political mobilization from stakeholder communities. The project then also looks to the creation of a joint forum for both steering the research, so that competing narratives are negotiated and reconciled with the historical record and by both sides, and for creating and implementing an action plan for mobilizing to preserve the shrine in both its Jewish and Islamic role. The forum will prioritize sustainable development and create a model for future projects.