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Following the Allied invasion of Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the country has appeared at various points to be on the edge of disintegration. The Coalition Provisional Authority’s early understanding of a country neatly divisible into ethnic and sectarian groupings (Kurd, Sunni, and Shi’a) entrenched divisions in the occupation of the country that, previously, had often been fluid. Efforts to integrate the country around signs of a shared national identity have, among many other things, involved the deployment of symbolic practices such as music and dance. This is a picture of a mizmar (flute) player at the National Unity Performing and Visual Arts Academy of Iraq in 2007.

Druze Woman from the Chouf Region of Modern-Day Lebanon Wearing a Tantur

Name: Iraqi Flute Player

Material: Unknown

Size: 600 × 786 pixels (372 KB)

Date: July 2007

Place of Origin: Work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code; Iraq

Location: Wikimedia Commons

Source and Registration#: Wikimedia Commons. Link to resource (accessed May 7, 2010).

Attribution: Work by Michael T. Luongo

Original Caption: “English: Traditional flute player from Iraqi folk dance troupe plays at a performance at a 10-day camp for aspiring Iraqi performers and artists at the National Unity Performing and Visual Arts Academy.”

Martin Stokes

Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford University