Popular Iraqi Novelist Gunned Down in Kerbala

Iraqis have had enough. Saturday’s assassination of novelist Alaa Mashzoub has led to an outpouring of grief and a newfound determination among his many supporters. According to news from AP, “On Sunday, intellectuals and artists from Karbala, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, staged a sit-in”. Social media has exploded:

😢 so sad..
The published literature and writing of the assassinated writer #AlaaMashthoub https://t.co/B8e7Jj2zIz

— Hanguin Ramadani (@HanguinRamadani) February 3, 2019

HORRIBLE. #Iraq-i novelist and critic Alaa Mashzoub assassinated in Karbalaa today with 13 bullets.
He criticized radicalism, ISIS, Iran rulers & its militias. Penned work about Iraqi Jewish minority, history of Karbalaa & many novels. Will we see justice? RIP v @BaxtiyarGoran pic.twitter.com/K6kFJCrHRk

— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) February 2, 2019

Along with 19 other books, Iraqi novelist Alaa Mashthoub wrote a novel on Karbala’s once thriving Jewish community. He was murdered yesterday. Readers of Arabic can purchase his novel here https://t.co/PsPaXNOE3A https://t.co/LOg9frQw6b

— Molly Crabapple (@mollycrabapple) February 4, 2019

The novelist Alaa Mashthoub joins model Tara Fares and actor Karrar Noushi as another free thinking Iraqi nonconformist who was murdered, almost certainly for that very nonconformity and freedom

I wrote about Fares last year https://t.co/0X2VSvvtb5

— Molly Crabapple (@mollycrabapple) February 4, 2019

More about the killing comes from reporting by Voice Of America:

A motorcycle gunman shot dead an Iraqi novelist close to his house in the Shi’ite holy city of Karbala on Saturday, police and eyewitnesses said. Alaa Mashzoub, 50, was on his way home when he was shot multiple times, police said late on Saturday. It was unclear what the motive was and no group has claimed responsibility, they added.

“The cultural scene has lost one of its special authors and creators,” Iraq’s Culture and Tourism Minister Abdul Amir al-Hamdani said in a statement on Sunday. Mashzoub was active in local Kerbala civil society. Iraq’s writers union condemned the shooting and blamed security forces for not doing enough to protect intellectuals.

“The union holds the central and local government fully responsible, for they have failed to maintain public safety,” it said in a statement. Mashzoub wrote several novels and short story collections that won local and regional literary awards.

According to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights:

Dr. Abboud, born in 1968, graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad in 1993 and received his Masters and Doctor of Fine Arts in 2009 and 2014, respectively. He is a member of the Syndicate of Artists, the Journalists’ Syndicate, the General Federation of Writers and Writers, and the Society for Peace and Solidarity in Iraq. He has been a writer since he was young and began to publish his articles in Iraqi newspapers since 1987, including in recent years in the “Al-Sabah”, “Azzaman”, “Al-Mada” and “Al-Lttihad” newspapers.

He wrote a number of novels including “The Chaos of the Nation” in 2014, which was selected as one of the five best books at the Abu Dhabi exhibition. He also directed a number of documentary films, including the film “Doors and Windows”, which won the second prize at a short film festival.