I'm a protester in the current Iraqi revolution that started in the 25th of October and still ongoing,Ask me anything!

Generally speaking, are people seeking a politician that aligns with liberal democratic values? Like women being equal to men legally? Or do people want a more traditional government that will heavily enforce islamic law?

Is the countries oil owned by foreign corporations?

Is the government corrupted because of the opium trade? Or is it just generally a squandering of the nations money? How much ofnthe oil revenue is being taxed by the government?

Is the NWO supporting this government? Is my country, the U.S generally supporting free elections or are they propping up leaders who will give away the countries oil to foreign companies? Is this the root of the problem?

How is life there now and how has it changed over the past two decades since the U.S invasion?

There is a big movement about making Iraq liberal and most of the protesters agree with it, we want a country run by laws that are appropriate for the time, Iraq shouldn't be an Islamic country because it's too diverse to be

The oil is completely run by Iraqi corporations

The opium trade is corrupt, but so is every deal this Government did,they're stealing money from everywhere in the country

Most countries have been silent on our government currently, but others like Turkey and Iran have been in full support with this corruption because they have their hand up our asses and don't want to lose that, as for the U.S they obviously want the next prime minister to be their puppet as well to help them with the oil deals and have shown zero support of our revolution.

Life is not as bad after we managed to kick out ISIS, before that the country was not safe at all especially in 2007 when a civil, war was happening Before the U.S invasion it wasn't good either because Saddam was an ass president and a dictator

Thank you for taking the time to answer, and good luck to you!

Thank you so much for caring!

Hello! Greetings from the US; I admire what you're doing to bring change to your country. The United States is often perceived as not only a country of imperialistic views in many ways, but one that is often dominated by trying to be "police" the world. My question is, do the people of Iraq want any intervention from outside parties, particularly that of the US? I know the US is always interest-lead and we have already brought unnecessary harm to your country in many ways, just an honest question considering how much power the US has. That being said, that's not to say that the amazing power of individuals like you isn't enough to bring change.

The protesters will take any help they can get tbh, we are really desperate to finally get rid of the government...hell some people here are willing to sell their souls to the devil if it helps get rid of the government and Iran

But it isn't that simple unfortunately, Iran and Turkey want this government to stay and the US interfering could lead to problems with these two more than they already have and I don't think America think we're worth the trouble although I could be wrong because our oil is really tempting

I hope we can change our country without help from the outside but it'll be really difficult to do so against Iran with our government Thank you for your kind words and for caring my friend

There's a common narrative that many of Iraq's problems historically and today stem from its creation by pushing together distinct territories and cultures. Do you agree with this to any degree? If you could redraw the borders of Iraq into separate countries, would you do so, and how would you do it?

To be honest this question can give you many different answers Some people blame America, Others blame Iran,Sadam,The Sunnis,the shia So many different reasons But in my opinion it's all of these mentioned above, the situation here is the accumulation of decades of problems and wars and indifferences

As for diving the border I would keep Iraq as is and not change a thing because Iraq shouldn't be changed and that's what most people agree on, there has been past attempts to split the border or redraw it but they never happened because nobody wants that

Is there anything anyone can do to help?

Yes! You can share our revolution Twitter and spread awareness

Also if any of you post on Instagram you can search for #iraqisodachallenge and participate with your headshot

Anything will help and is greatly appreciated by us. Thank you for caring

I am not sure "headshot" is a good choice of words for someone in your situation.

Yeah I should have made myself clear

The soda challenge consists of taking a soda can and putting it next to your head, this represent the tear gas cans the government is using against us

Now the headshot term comes from the fact that the people are getting killed by getting headshotted by these cans directly in brutal manner because they shot them in a launcher So the challenge is representing that headshot with a soda can to raise awareness about the ways of our government

How was your day?

Can't really say it's good with all my brothers dying but I'm hanging on well

Thank you for asking sillygoose7623!

I hope you and your family stay safe during this time. I just want to ask if the current generation of Iraqi people are looking for more of a traditional westernization of Iraq? You mentioned that a more liberal Iraq is what the revolution is looking to bring. Do you think this revolution will bring a more liberal Iraq or revert back to a stricter sharia law state? Do your fear that what might take its place would be even more tyrannical?

Thanks again for your time.

We're looking to make Iraq more liberal while still keeping the Iraqi culture in the country

No I think this revolution will bring a more liberal Iraq if successful In my opinion even if this revolution fails, Iraq will become liberal because the youth of this country is open to the internet and the west and isn't too fond of the Sharia law

As far as victims of this current protest how many people are willing to continue risking their lives for this revolution ?. You said many of the people killed were in their 20s what are the older folks in Iraq telling their kids as they go out to join in the protests or are older people also participating?. Thank you for your time and hope you and yours stay safe .

For every thousand dead there are thousands more willing to risk their lives including myself

The older folks aren't too fond of this revolution (not all of them but a good 70%) and it's pretty much lead by the youth with martyrs being under the age of 30 and even under 20

The reason is they are too scared to participate or let their kids participate, or some see it as useless, whatever the reason is they are wrong or cowards

Are you afraid that your government might try to find you specifically for doing this AMA and trying to bring attention to this internationally?

Yes I'm definitely afraid

The government has been kidnapping and torturing activists since the start of this revolution, and it isn't a smart idea to not take my precautions

Hey, I was aware of these protests (thanks to independent and leftist news channels on YouTube mostly lol) in your previous post you mentioned shitty life conditions and the fact that the country produces a lotr of oil. Would you say that inequality is one of the reasons for the protests? You also mentioned the country was in debt, Is it with the IMF? (international Monetary fund) And one last question, did other protests around the globe influence yours? (Chile, Haití) sorry for asking too much!

Edit: Autocorrect made me write in spanglish

Hi I didn't really understand what you meant by inequality but if you meant inequality between classes then yes there is a huge inequality of how people live here and the 1% basically holds all the money

Our main debt is to the World bank after a huge loan, unfortunately I'm not familiar with IMF so I can't be sure, we also have debts with various countries

Some people were influenced to participate by seeing the HK and Lebanon protests but we and myself included weren't that much influenced no, but I hope all the protesters around the world get what they deserve and have justice

Thank you so much for caring

Don’t they filter the Internet there? How are you able to get this out? Also thank you for keeping us informed.

At the start of the revolution the internet was cut off completely, but they kept opening it every 48 hours to keep them from getting punished by the UN (the brought it back for like an hour and cut it off again) This lasted for about a week then it was brought back with a restriction on social media platforms (which we worked around with VPN) this restriction was taken off a few days ago The internet now is fully open like it always was tbh albeit with shit speed but that's how it is here

What do you hope is the outcome of the revolution?

To remove the whole government and any person with a connection to it and having new elections without any previous candidates in them

Also to punish the criminals that killed innocent protesters and corrupts in a fair trial

I've heard the Iraq Communist Party is taking a heavy role in this movement. Are they a prominent or dominant force in the demonstrations? What political flavor has the movement adopted?

The communist party has been long dead in Iraq and has no part in these demonstrations, the rumours about them having a role are false

How brutally were you hurt, physically and mentally?

I wasn't hurt physically thankfully

But mentally is a whole different story, seeing videos of mothers carrying their killed son and people you know getting killed brutally including doctors is just too much to handle, I have episodes where I just suddenly cry and not be able to handle it

The situation is definitely getting worst and it's really heartbreaking

What are your thoughts on President Trump?

He's a good laugh I guess... I only see the odd and funny videos of him so I don't really know how he's doing for the U.S and I know there's mixed reception of him but I personally don't have much of an opinion on the guy because he hasn't done anything to directly affect Iraq much

Hope the next president can be better and does a good job for the American people

Why are you protesting the Iraqi government? Are you not afraid that it might lead to further instability in your country?

The situation in my country couldn't be worst and I'll give you a few reasons why this revolution happened 1-Our country is one of the biggest oil producers in the world producing almost too to toe with Emirates and Dubai but our country is the worst to live in terms of services and technology and crime rate, while we have many other sources, countries that rely only on their oil to advance are light years more developed than us.... 2-Any degree other than Medicine cannot get you a job in here because of how much the country is in debt...imagine being having a degree in engineering and just being a taxi driver 3- Our country is probably the worst I've seen in human services such as internet, medical aid,roads etc...you name it and it's probably shit in Iraq

This and many other reasons drive us to go out and protest, it is totally unacceptable how we live in this country and now it is a point of no return