Kurdish clubs boom as Baghdad bans booze
SULAIMANIYAH: Dozens of men gathered in the smoky little club to watch five scantily clad dancers sway their hips to the beat of a drum and the grooves of an electric piano. Once a common sight in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, the scene can now only be found in the more liberal Kurdish north.
Dozens of dance halls and clubs have opened across the Kurdish region during the past months, capitalizing on a crackdown against alcohol in Baghdad, where officials in November began closing clubs serving booze and banned alcohol sales at stores. That prompted the capital's nightlife its musicians, dancers and the patrons who flock to them to migrate north.
"Baghdad has become a dead city where there is no more amusement, no drinks and no music. They have dressed the capital in religious clothes," said Hameed Saleh, a Baghdad Academy of Music graduate who plays drums at Kurdonia Club. "Now I play music in Sulaimaniyah and my life is secure."
Baghdad in the 1970s and 1980s was renowned for being the capital of Middle East nightlife with the most raucous nightclubs and an endless flow of whiskey. UN sanctions and Saddam Hussein's newfound piety dimmed its star a bit in the 1990s, but it was the US-led invasion in 2003, the violence that ensued and the rise of conservative Islamic militias that all but snuffed it out. Nightlife in Baghdad tried to rise from the dead after violence declined in 2008, but the final blow came when religious conservatives began enforcing a Saddam-era ban on alcohol in clubs and added a ban in stores.
Now artists and entertainers have joined the refugees who over the past seven years streamed from other parts of Iraq into the three provinces that make up the Kurdish Autonomous Region in the north, seeking a safe haven from violence. Many of the clients in these places hail from Baghdad and other provinces to the south, said club owner Haithem al-Jabouri. He picked Sulaimaniyah to open his club in November because it's so much more secure than t! he rest of Iraq.
It was security that also drew Raghad Abdul-Wahab to the city. The 26-year-old used to dance at clubs in one of Baghdad's wealthier neighborhoods but religious leaders near her home tried to convince her family it was immoral. She always felt unsafe when she would leave the club in the evening, and then when Baghdad officials turned off the alcohol, she decided to move north.
"I am free here, and I can dance as I like. I just do my job and I get some money," she said.
The Kurdish governments tourism department has given licenses to at least 10 clubs and bars in the province over the last month, said Mustafa Hama Raheem, director of the licenses office in the tourism department. Many more clubs have opened in people's homes or private buildings without licenses, he said.
He said the clubs and dance halls are a boost for the local economy. "We have to attract tourists to stay for a longer time here."
Dozens of dance halls and clubs have opened across the Kurdish region during the past months, capitalizing on a crackdown against alcohol in Baghdad, where officials in November began closing clubs serving booze and banned alcohol sales at stores. That prompted the capital's nightlife its musicians, dancers and the patrons who flock to them to migrate north.
"Baghdad has become a dead city where there is no more amusement, no drinks and no music. They have dressed the capital in religious clothes," said Hameed Saleh, a Baghdad Academy of Music graduate who plays drums at Kurdonia Club. "Now I play music in Sulaimaniyah and my life is secure."
Baghdad in the 1970s and 1980s was renowned for being the capital of Middle East nightlife with the most raucous nightclubs and an endless flow of whiskey. UN sanctions and Saddam Hussein's newfound piety dimmed its star a bit in the 1990s, but it was the US-led invasion in 2003, the violence that ensued and the rise of conservative Islamic militias that all but snuffed it out. Nightlife in Baghdad tried to rise from the dead after violence declined in 2008, but the final blow came when religious conservatives began enforcing a Saddam-era ban on alcohol in clubs and added a ban in stores.
Now artists and entertainers have joined the refugees who over the past seven years streamed from other parts of Iraq into the three provinces that make up the Kurdish Autonomous Region in the north, seeking a safe haven from violence. Many of the clients in these places hail from Baghdad and other provinces to the south, said club owner Haithem al-Jabouri. He picked Sulaimaniyah to open his club in November because it's so much more secure than t! he rest of Iraq.
It was security that also drew Raghad Abdul-Wahab to the city. The 26-year-old used to dance at clubs in one of Baghdad's wealthier neighborhoods but religious leaders near her home tried to convince her family it was immoral. She always felt unsafe when she would leave the club in the evening, and then when Baghdad officials turned off the alcohol, she decided to move north.
"I am free here, and I can dance as I like. I just do my job and I get some money," she said.
The Kurdish governments tourism department has given licenses to at least 10 clubs and bars in the province over the last month, said Mustafa Hama Raheem, director of the licenses office in the tourism department. Many more clubs have opened in people's homes or private buildings without licenses, he said.
He said the clubs and dance halls are a boost for the local economy. "We have to attract tourists to stay for a longer time here."
Comments