"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢‎٨] (٨٦٢/٤٦١)

iraasaswsrenmra
22% PEOPLE
effective tribal authority is the village shaikh; this is usually the shaikh
of a tribal section or sub-section who has built himself a mud tower
of refuge and become virtually independent. He is usually both shaikh
and landlord, and his tribesmen farm his lands as share-croppers
(p. 445). Here and elsewhere the shaikhs of nomadic and semi-
nomadic tribes have encouraged the settlement of their tribesmen,
and have tried to turn themselves into feudal landlords under the
schemes of land settlement promoted since the time of Midhat
Pasha (p. 267). The change is reflected in the change of housing
styles: the nomad’s tent is first surrounded by shelters of reed, then
by a mud-brick wall, and finally replaced by a mud hut.
The standard of living is very low and is generally at subsistence
level, providing for inadequate food and very few clothes. It is
calculated that in 1930 a peasant made the equivalent of no rupees
a year and a shepherd 60 rupees: but for this they only worked
5-6 hours a day for a maximum of 9 months a year. 1 Between 1918
and 1923, however, when prices for produce were high, both shepherds
and peasants became accustomed to certain luxuries such as tea and
sugar which they have since found it hard to go without. The wealth
of the shaikhs is only relative. Except for the paramount shaikhs of
great confederations, a shaikh of a village or sub-section was well off
before 1940 if his lands and dues produced a rupee a day. Since
1941 the immense influx of foreign money into Iraq from the armies
of occupation has very seriously disturbed the economic life of the
country (p. 485).
Education exists, if at all, in the school of the mulla, where children
are taught to read the Koran, or if the mulla is himself illiterate, to
recite it; some may be taught to read at home. They are thoroughly
‘spoiled’, but grow up sharing the responsibilities of the family.
Boys and girls play together and there is no real seclusion or veiling
of women, though an unmarried girl will cover the lower part of her
face before a man. The influence of the family is paramount, and the
young folk think and talk only of marriage and the family hearth.
The usual age of marriage seems to be between 30 and 41 for men,
and families are not large. The custom of cousin-marriage (p. 342) is
declining, and, though the dowry motive is strong, marriages of love
occur. As for polygamy, few but shaikhs can afford more than one
wife at a time. The worst feature of the social system is the notion
of family honour, whereby it is the duty of the family to kill any wife
or daughter who has been slandered by village gossip however falsely.
1 The rupee is reckoned as is. 6 d.