Afro-Iraqi Rituals: Between Preserving Identity and Resisting Oppression

The talk explores the significance of Afro-Iraqi rituals within a problematic oppressive context. Afro-Iraqi rituals play two important roles within Afro-Iraqi culture: assert and sustain communal identity and resist hegemony and discrimination. The talk touches on slavery in pre-Islam Arabia and Islam, the history of Afro-Iraqis, and types of discrimination/challenges they have been facing, their rituals, and the roles of those rituals.