Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi was forced to leave the funeral of celebrated Iraqi poet Muthaffar Al Nawab in Baghdad on Saturday morning after a section of mourners started chanting political slogans.
Al Nawab died a day earlier at the University Hospital Sharjah in the UAE after a prolonged illness. He was 88.
The funeral procession started peacefully at the Association of the Iraqi Writers in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood after the wooden casket containing the poet's body arrived from the airport.
A few minutes later, some of the mourners started shouting slogans against the prime minister and Iraq's political elite.
Waving Iraqi flags and pumping their fists in the air, they shouted "The people want to bring down the regime," and "Oil is for the people not for the thieves."
The chaos forced the pallbearers to return Al Nawab's casket to the hearse and speed away with Mr Al Kadhimi's convoy.
Some of the mourners pelted the convoy with stones, bottles of water and shoes as it left.
Mr Al Kadhimi had ordered Al Nawab's body to be brought back to Iraq by presidential plane so that the poet could be laid to rest in his homeland. He went to the airport with other officials to receive the body.
Nicknamed the "revolutionary poet", Al Nawab gained most of his renown and notoriety for poems decrying corrupt regimes across the Arab world.
Born into an affluent family in Baghdad, he exhibited a talent for poetry from an early age.
He became a teacher after graduating from the University of Baghdad but his leftist political leanings — he joined the Iraqi Communist Party while in university — eventually led to his dismissal.
Amid a power struggle between nationalists and communists in the wake of Iraq's 1958 revolution, Al Nawab was arrested and sentenced to death — later commuted to life imprisonment — for a poem against the nationalist government.
He escaped prison by digging a tunnel along with other inmates and fled Iraq.
Al Nawab's life was one of constant movement, having lived in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Eritrea, as he continued to write and perform his work.
His funeral comes at a time of widespread anger against the political elites who have ruled Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion ended the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Al Kadhimi, who took office in May 2020 after protests over poor public services, unemployment and corruption forced the resignation of the previous government, is serving in a caretaker capacity. Iraq's political groups have yet to agree on a new government following a general election in October last year.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
England's lowest Test innings
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
GROUPS AND FIXTURES
Group A
UAE, Italy, Japan, Spain
Group B
Egypt, Iran, Mexico, Russia
Tuesday
4.15pm: Italy v Japan
5.30pm: Spain v UAE
6.45pm: Egypt v Russia
8pm: Iran v Mexico