Baghdad Jedida

New Baghdad Courthouse--Civil and Family Court

Today, I headed out to New Baghdad section of Baghdad, otherwise known as 9 Nisan, or Baghdad Jedidah. New Baghdad is adjacent to Sadr City to the southeast--the courthouse itself is about a mile from Muqtada-town, as we call it. The area is mixed Sunni-Shia, but the criminal court and its investigative judges moved to Sadr City more than a year ago, making equal protection under the law a questionable right of justice for the Sunni who must have their cases prosecuted there. The Court is moving into another rented facility nearby in the next few months.

New Baghdad is a Court of First Instance and Personal Status Court, or what we would call civil and family court. Most civil and family courts are very busy, with lots of Iraqis coming to formalize weddings and births before the court, settle business disputes, and property transactions, for example. It is also in the family courts where most women lawyers practice.

A couple walking from the Courthouse holding hands. Public displays of affection between men and women are rare, but I understand this couple mostly likely just registered their marriage or the birth of a child.

Some of the senior lawyers at the court were very wary of us, and one tried to prevent us from speaking to them without the permission of the "Chief Lawyer of all of Iraq." When I responded with "You mean Aswad al-Minshidi, the president of the Iraqi Bar? He is a very good friend, and has invited us to speak to his lawyers wherever we find them." the guy shut-up and let us in (not that he could have stopped us, but we’re not there to go kicking in doors…there are other guys around for that).

The local area is heavily influenced by Jaysh al-Madhi (JAM—Sadr's militia), which I suspect is the reason some lawyers were hesitant to speak with us, and none wanted their photos taken. That’s not to say that the lawyers were JAM—although they may have been—but JAM has its eyes and ears everywhere, and they have simply feared being seen “cooperating” with American forces.

In front of every Courthouse are "notaries"--people who draft pleadings and other legal documents. This notary has nothing more than a typewriter, a folding table and a plactic chair, but he's out there doing business every day, trying to make a living.

We found that our discussion the lawyers at the Court was not as robust as it often is. Usually, the lawyers flood us, and are eager to talk with us about the challenges of lawyering in modern Iraq. I left the room, thinking that it was perhaps my presence in uniform with weapons that was complicating the matter. When I came back after wandering the courthouse grounds taking pictures of the court’s security measures and talking with some of the Iraqis coming to the court, I found my civilian counterpart swamped with a large circle of Iraqi barristers, all making their case.