Decades after the Gulf War, Iraq’s youth view oil as a curse

Thirty years after Iraq invaded Kuwait, youth protesters are demanding the government end corruption in the oil industry and finally use its profits to improve people’s lives.

Baghdad, Iraq — Like most of the young people who joined Iraq’s countrywide demonstrations in 2019, musician Sally Mars took to the streets to demand that the government tackle unemployment, improve basic services and end corruption. The call to specifically end corruption in Iraq’s oil industry quickly became one of the biggest battle cries among demonstrators. Mars, who goes by her stage name as a musician, doesn’t care much for oil, yet her life has been largely influenced by the role of the industry in Iraqi politics, even before she was born. The country, she says, has been cursed by oil.