(25 Aug 2019) LEAD IN: Iraqi expatriates have been living in Iran for years.
The neighbourhood of Dowlat Abad in south Tehran has become a hub for the Iraqi community.
STORY-LINE:
This area looks like a typical neighbourhood in Tehran at first glance.
But if you listen closely you will hear pedestrians talking in Arabic instead of Farsi.
And you will see Iraqis wearing traditional Arabic robes while attending the mosques in the neighbourhood.
Iraqi expats live in several Iranian cities including Qom, Mashhad, and Tehran.
Those who choose to reside in Tehran mostly live in Dowlat Abad, a neighbourhood in the south of the capital.
Now it is the main hub for the Iraqi community living in the capital and a destination for Iraqi tourists.
Iraqi-born expatriate, Abu Hussain, has lived here for many years.
"How many years passed since the fall of Saddam, from the fall until now. But because of the poor situation in Iraq, both economically and politically, many Iraqis have come to Iran and specifically to this area," he says.
Some Shiite Iraqis were expelled and moved to Iran during the rule of former dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.
Many of them were of Iranian descent.
There are plenty of restaurants selling Arabic sweets and falafel and signs in Arabic can be seen everywhere.
Iraqi shop owner Sayyed Talib Hussaini has integrated well here.
"In Iran, we don't feel we are foreigners, we never felt foreign, not at all, and we belong to Iraq because our tongue is Arabic. We also learned the Persian language here."
"For a person to stay 40 years in a place, he will learn how to speak the language fluently," he smiles.
Abdolghani Mousavi, a frame-maker, says Iraqis live "as brothers with the Iranians."
"We are good to them and they are good to us. They respect us and we respect them."
Many of the residents have been living in Iran for over 40 years, and their children were born in the country.
A United Nations Refugee Agency said in a report in 2003 that over 200,000 Iraqis lived in Iran.
But an official census in 2016 put the population of Iraqis at around 34,000, indicating many Iraqis returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi student, Sami al-Hassan, feels very at home here.
"Iran is my second country," he says.
"When I came to Iran I thought it would be difficult but in reality it was so easy to settle in. The people here are kind, and the nation is great in general."
Some Iraqi migrants have moved to Western countries over the past years, and many of those of Iranian descent obtained Iranian nationality.
Last year, two million Iraqi tourists visited Iran, mostly for pilgrimage and medical treatment.
Find out more about AP Archive:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Google+:
Tumblr:
Instagram:
You can license this story through AP Archive:
0 Comments