Basra used to once be the jewel of Iraq. In the late 1960s, the founder of the UAE reportedly wanted to "transform Abu Dhabi into another Basra" (!). Today, Basra is home to some of Iraq's most marginalized youth.
Basra is today among Iraq's poorest regions, with high unemployment, very poor services, and electricity/water supply outages. This is despite it being one of Iraq's most oil rich regions.
Imagine the situation where you're living in an oil rich region, with oil fields and refineries and oil exports, but your city doesn't have clean water or regular electricity
The protests have been going on for a while, they didn't just start this week. Protests over poor services are only about services when they start - they quickly turn political, about your very worth and dignity as a citizen.
