In Contested City, Alissa Walter weaves a compelling narrative of how Baghdadis reinvented themselves not as subjects but as citizens through Baghdad’s history as post-colonial capital, from the oil boom in the 1950s to the withdrawal of American troops in 2011. By casting neighbourhoods as the fundamental unit of analysis for understanding the state society relationship, Walter successfully shifts the gaze from the authoritarian regime of Saddam Hussein to exploring the power dynamics built on advocacy, negotiation and autonomy between Baghdad’s residents and localized regime representatives of the Ba’th party. Walter’s approach transcends disciplinary boundaries in the social sciences, integrating historical and ethnographic methods by drawing on archival sources, oral history, newspaper records, diplomatic communications and American military records to illuminate everyday models of governance, resistance and survival strategies adopted by Baghdadis beyond ethnic and sectarian fissures.
Walter commences by focusing on spatial hierarchies created by Baghdad’s modernization initiatives. The demarcation of the city between middle-class professionals, government officials and rural immigrants reflected the political priorities of the Iraqi government, thereby outlining the interaction between Baghdad’s built and social environment. The logic of rational engineering of social life faltered in the face of the creation of homogeneous neighbourhoods for professionals and government officials that happened through negotiation between housing co-operative unions, individual homeowners, construction workers and labourers, excluding the state (p. 57). Moreover, the pushing away of poorer residents to Baghdad’s periphery in a neighbourhood called Revolution City raised the question, in Lefebvre’s phrasing, of which residents possessed the right to the city. This idiosyncratic creation of Baghdad’s neighbourhoods for sustaining political loyalties and silencing ideological dissent paved the way for localization of governance by Ba’th party officials (p. 9). This localization becomes apparent during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, when it produced a chronobiopolitical regime for Baghdadis (p. 61).
In the second chapter, Walter counters the notion that Baghdad remained insulated during the Iran–Iraq war, especially during the War of the Cities phase from 1984 to 1988 (p. 62). This experience is crucial for understanding how Baghdadis prioritized survival and advocated for themselves amidst the United Nations economic embargo following the Gulf War. The creation of war memorials amid the uncertainty of the war reflected the regime’s attempt to mould a narrative of Iraq’s victory over Iran through symbolic and religious imagery (p. 72). Additionally, Saddam Hussein’s renaming of Revolution City as ‘Saddam City’ was an act of establishing surveillance and enforcing political control on members of the opposition Da’wa party. As Dina Khoury demonstrates in her earlier book Iraq in Wartime (2013), the war created new categories of inclusion and exclusion (p. 74). The deportation of Persian Iraqis and veneration of martyrs and veterans crafted new notions of Iraqi nationality and enhanced religiosity and Islamization in public spaces (pp. 76, 85, 94). The imposition of UN sanctions in 1990 during the Gulf War strengthened the regime as Iraqis became dependent on Saddam Hussein’s regime for their survival (p. 95).
The second half of the book focuses extensively on citizen advocacy and local governance by drawing on oral history and archival research (p. 102). The third chapter focuses on the establishment and weaponization of the food rationing system. Ration distribution through neighbourhood officials showcased the regime’s competency, as local shopkeepers personalized the bureaucratic functioning for ordinary citizens (p. 110). It also became a surveillance mechanism for identifying absentee public officials, opposition members and deserters from the military, which resulted in imposing collective punishment on family members (p. 115).
The personalized nature of ration distribution and its weaponization culminated in Baghdadi residents resorting to petitioning the regime and deploying local authorities’ intervention in their personal affairs to seek relief, thereby demonstrating the power of local officials in circumventing official authority. Walter examines examples of these petitions to the government from the 1980s to 2000 to conceptualize petitioning as a political act and survival strategy, challenging the conventional portrayal of Baghdadis as passive subjects of Saddam Hussein’s regime (p. 132).
The bureaucratic inefficiency which resulted in the emergence of the gendered nature of criminal activity and criminals is the focus of the fifth chapter. The policing efforts were directed towards curtailing deviant sexuality, especially sodomy and prostitution, which could threaten the patriarchal social order of the Iraqi state (p. 160). However, enforcing punishments was not consistent and those who were at the intersection of marginalized identity, especially Ghajar women, were particularly vulnerable (p. 174). Walter also showcases how bodies of middle-class Baghdadi women were excluded from Baghdad’s landscape as they feared gendered violence, and their domesticity and reproductive abilities were made responsible for bringing stability to turbulent Iraqi society.
The pivotal landmark of the US invasion in 2003, which culminated in the collapse of state services for Baghdadis, is central to the last chapter. Walter argues that the incompetent and hurriedly created US council system for governing Baghdad took no cognizance of localized characteristics of the intimate relationships between Baghdad neighbourhoods and local officials while being short of funding and power. This superimposition faltered, resulting in the creation of Muqtada al Sadr’s Sadr Bureau and Mahdi Army who were successful in providing essential services to Baghdadis (p. 217).
Walter’s examination of Baghdad is underpinned by her recognition of her positionality as an American researcher and the ethical problems raised by accessing the Ba’th party archives in the United States. Beyond the book’s intended audience for Middle Eastern studies and urban historians, Walter’s work initiates a methodological and disciplinary conversation about how the built environment and social history should be studied in tandem with each other to understand localized forms of governance and participation. It is therefore also a critical read for anthropologists, historians and social science researchers in the broader field of urban studies.
