Storytelling: Restorative Approaches to Post-2003 Iraq Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT

Top-down national reconciliation initiatives overlook the significance of, and connection between, story and culture in social conflict resolution. They have thus failed to emerge in post-2003 Iraq. This article draws on the theoretical insights from social constructionism to examine the potential of centreing storytelling within a bottom-up restorative peacebuilding process. It posits that integrating storytelling-based practices, such as restorative justice dialogue and restorative education, within Iraq's legal and educations systems can promote an inclusive, cross-communal public discourse and facilitate bottom-up and inclusive peacebuilding practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Storytelling
• Iraq
• restorative
• transitional
• justice
• peacebuilding

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Shamiran Mako for inviting me to participate in the workshop at Boston University which initiated this special edition, and for guiding my article to publication with sage advice and support. I would also like to thank the anonymous referees and journal editors for their invaluable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Law excludes children born out of CRSV, denying them state support like that granted to their mothers. It may be collective punishment for their blood affiliation to ISIS fighters, alienating them further from society, contrary to the goals of restorative efforts.

2 The protests have been ongoing since October 2019 and have expanded to the Kurdish Region of Iraq. Protests stopped temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed only to face continued, brutal state and non-state violence including arrests, enforced disappearances, and assassinations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ruba Ali Al-Hassani

Ruba Ali Al-Hassani is a PhD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, studying post-conflict state sovereignty. Her research interests include Iraqi Studies, Digital Sociology, Storytelling Sociology, transitional justice, and the Sociology of Law.