{"id":34255,"date":"2019-03-05T23:23:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34255"},"modified":"2019-03-05T23:23:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:23:15","slug":"once-bustling-baghdad-boulevard-dallies-in-disrepair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34255","title":{"rendered":"Once-bustling Baghdad boulevard dallies in disrepair"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nBAGHDAD:\u00a0Behind the dilapidated storefronts and collapsing colonnades of Rasheed Street lie the treasures of the Iraqi capital\u2019s cultural boom years: Old cinemas, artisan shops and smoky cafes playing classic ballads.<\/p>\n

\nBut with young Iraqis listening to modern music and spending hours in hipster-style coffee shops, the boulevard that bustled non-stop in the 1970s is at risk of being passed over.<\/p>\n

\nAuthorities have tried to revive the street in recent weeks by removing the security checkpoints and concrete blast walls that lined Rasheed for years.<\/p>\n

\nAnnouncing the move, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi extolled: \u201cRasheed Street is the memory of Baghdad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDespite his government\u2019s best efforts though, it may be reduced to only that.<\/p>\n

\nDecades ago, the street\u2019s Umm Kulthum Cafe was packed with wistful young men listening to the sultry voice of its namesake, the Egyptian \u201cqueen\u201d of Arabic music.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cComing here was a daily tradition for us. We used to have a lovely time,\u201d reminisced Abu Haidar, a retired army serviceman in his 70s.<\/p>\n

\nIt was so busy that customers \u2014 writers, men on their way to or from work, and those seeking solace in the music \u2014 struggled to call over harried waiters to order muddy coffee and sweet Iraqi tea.<\/p>\n

\nNow, it only fills up on Saturdays, the traditional day for meeting up with friends in cafes, when older men chain-smoke and sip hot drinks on wooden benches under framed portraits of Iraq\u2019s unseated king, Faisal II.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAfter all these years, this coffee shop is the only place we can go to remember,\u201d said Abu Haidar. \u201cWe hope it can escape extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSome date the street\u2019s deterioration back to the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI started coming here in 1971, but after 2003, it was ignored,\u201d said Tareq Jamila, 70, another cafe customer. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t find the old pioneers, who used to sit in the coffee shop and actually understand Umm Kulthum\u2019s songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe invasion and sectarian violence that followed saw several bombs planted near Rasheed Street, with the last explosion in 2016 killing more than two dozen people.<\/p>\n

\nOther historic areas of the capital similarly fell into disrepair during the years of bloodshed, with Baghdadis often filled with nostalgia for the past. The floor of the abandoned Mekki Awwad theater, further south in the capital along the winding Tigris River, is blanketed in dust and litter.<\/p>\n

\nIt once hosted boisterous nighttime shows, but the rows of numbered seats have not been occupied in years.<\/p>\n

\nArt galleries dotting the neighborhoods between the theater and Rasheed Street have shuttered their doors one after the other. As one of Baghdad\u2019s first cinemas, Al-Zawra had long been a legendary stop along Rasheed \u2014 but it too lies unused now.<\/p>\n

\nLast year, young Iraqi artists organized a walking tour through their capital in an effort to revive some of its historic districts with their own art installations.<\/p>\n

\nAlong the tired two-story buildings of Rasheed Street, one photographer hung new versions of decades-old pictures of Baghdad\u2019s heralded past.<\/p>\n

\nBut instead of looking up at the photographs, most shoppers were more interested in the tables selling watches, shimmering carp and fake Adidas.<\/p>\n

\nAnother Umm Kulthum-themed cafe has opened on Rasheed, choosing one of the singer\u2019s nicknames \u2014 Al-Ustura, or The Legend \u2014 as its name.<\/p>\n

\nAlthough its traditional yellow-brick walls and stained glass windows are \u201cfalling into ruin,\u201d the original Umm Kulthum is soldiering on, said Said Al-Qaissi, 65.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cNo one has considered renovating or preserving this place which celebrates art,\u201d said Qaissi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD:\u00a0Behind the dilapidated storefronts and collapsing colonnades of Rasheed Street lie the treasures of the Iraqi capital\u2019s cultural boom years: Old cinemas, artisan shops and smoky cafes playing classic ballads. But with young Iraqis listening to modern music and spending hours in hipster-style coffee shops, the boulevard that bustled non-stop in the 1970s is at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}