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Basra's Wary Rebirth
Booming Business In Non-Islamic Music
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Along Basra's corniche, a road running along the Shatt al Arab waterway that empties into the Persian Gulf, a rebirth is underway. Restaurants stay open late, no longer forced by insecurity to shut early. Men smoke water pipes in outdoor cafes, unconcerned about kidnappers.
On a recent night, Salam Hassan, 20, sold Arabic pop music CDs and cellphone ring tones on the sidewalk. A few months ago, Sadrists beat him up and fired a bullet that grazed his knee.
His crime: selling non-Islamic religious songs and ring tones.
After the offensive, he reopened. Now he sells 20 CDs a day, a sign that his customers also are bolder.
Weddings in Basra had become silent affairs. Kidnappers often targeted them, and gunmen sometimes tossed grenades into the wedding processions of rivals.
The sounds of drums and dancing now fill the streets every Thursday, when most weddings take place. Cars and buses are decked in flowers and play loud music as revelers head to local hotels for ceremonies.
"It's like a gift from God," exclaimed Abdul Emir Majid, 52, whose nephew was getting married on a recent day.
In the weeks after the crackdown, local vendors sold alcohol, a capital crime in the eyes of the Islamist militias. Now the concerns are different.
The new police chief recently ordered the vendors to stop alcohol sales. His reason? Once the ban was lifted, too many men were getting drunk in public.
"The first thing I did was drink whiskey on the corniche," said Ali Jassim, 20, another CD vendor, wiry and dressed in a tight orange shirt. He then grew out his hair, now shiny and slicked back with gel. The militants used to grab young men with long hair and lop it off in public.
On a warm recent evening, Abdul Karim Ali, 49, took his wife, Fatima, and 6-year-old daughter, Shehab, on a boat ride on the Shatt al Arab.
It was their first in five years. The religious purists frowned upon women socializing in public. Kidnappers also targeted families and children for ransom.
