Southern Iraq

Operations Manager, Iraqi-owned private security company · Basra, Southern Iraq · five years, 8 weeks in country and 4 weeks at home.

Background

I secured a role as an operations manager with an Iraqi-owned company based in Basra, in Iraq.

Situation

My first impression of Basra was of a city that resembled the set of a disaster movie, a seriously bad disaster movie. I had never seen so much litter, junk and rubbish strewn over the streets before. It was a shocking, dirty landscape built from millions of discarded plastic water bottles. My initial cultural observation was to question how anyone could live in such clear, abject poverty, in the blistering summer heat and the cold, damp winters. Endemic corruption is the modus operandi.

Meeting the locals and adjusting to their culture was an enormous switch from the society in Jordan I had recently said farewell to. Yet this was to be another fantastic cultural opportunity and a steep learning curve. The fundamental thing to understand is that Southern Iraq is tribal, run by the militias, and suffers from entrenched organised crime.

Tribal membership is essential, as everyone is born into a tribe. Tribes replace the state, as the state does not exist in terms of welfare and support. On paydays every man must contribute some of his salary to the tribe. In return, your family is protected and, collectively, you are safe. The downside is that men are expected to join in tribal activities such as beatings, killings and armed clashes. One of my team told me how much he hated being part of a tribe, yet he acknowledged that without tribal allegiance you are persona non grata. You could compare it to membership of a 1%er biker gang in North America or Europe. But in Basra, everyone is a 1%er.

One to one, Iraqi men are friendly. However, when other men arrive, or when they stand as a group, they can change, becoming belligerent and aggressive towards an expatriate. Expatriates cannot discipline Iraqis in any form or under any circumstance, as this is a cultural minefield not to step into. What stood out was the everyday cultural acceptance of corruption, the use of wasta and nepotism. As expatriates, we saw it and we knew it happened, but we said nothing, because to survive you had to turn a blind eye.

On a par with blasphemy is raising your voice or shouting at locals. We would joke that if you wanted to go home early, halfway through a rotation, you should shout at someone. When I returned to Iraq in 2024 as a Project Management Consultant, a large group of my local project staff gathered in the car park outside my office to protest before work, as their salary was two weeks late. As I was talking to them, the client came around the corner, so I raised my voice, reverting to my military command style, and shouted, “Right, let’s all get back to work before ‘Mr Client’ sees us.” My life flashed before me as the atmosphere changed instantly, and I had to make a hasty retreat to my office. The following day, I had to gather the men and make a heartfelt, sincere, yet fearful apology for raising my voice. Despite being in the region for twenty years, as a cultural ethnographer, I had failed myself, and endangered myself while I was at it. It took weeks to return to the same atmosphere with my local team.

I did, however, have one local whom I regarded as a friend. Mo was my watch-keeper and a genuinely decent, honest person. He would teach me Arabic when the office was quiet. I felt privileged to have an Iraqi friend I could ask culturally sensitive questions, as he understood my line of enquiry.

Reflections on Iraq

I went to Iraq fully aware that it was going to be a difficult arena to live and work in. Culturally, Basra took some adjusting to, as it was not like any other Arab society I had experienced.

I constantly watched my back in Iraq while trying hard not to drop my guard, which was sustainable for 8 weeks at a time. I left relieved, with five years of cultural understanding, raw data gathered and the end game achieved: a master’s degree in Transnational Organised Crime. In hindsight, I am grateful for my time and experiences there.

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