Al-Amiri, Nahi; Al-Amiri, Nahi; Abd Alhameed, Zahraa Ali
Synopsis "Chestnut Odyssey"
Preface Tells the story of the Gypsy (Dom) people in Iraq centuries ago. They would travel between cities and villages, peacefully, with no political ambitions or demands for social rights. Their limitless freedom was enough for them to practice their rituals and customs of dancing, singing, and music, which brought joy and happiness to the people living near them. In addition, they practiced some handicrafts, such as making daggers and knives, crafting gold teeth, fortune-telling, and tattooing women's faces and other parts of their bodies. The former Saddam Hussein regime deliberately attempted to alter their demographic nature. It sought to gather them into residential complexes spread across Baghdad and several governorates. This changed the nature of their lives, which had been based on travel and roaming, and facilitated repeated attacks against them. The novel's characters each speak from their perspective about the crime of the brutal murder of the young Gypsy woman, Ghusoun, by her ex-husband, Jassim. He was deeply infatuated with her and deserted his military unit during the Iraq-Iran War to marry her. He lived with her in her father's house in one of the Gypsy complexes. However, he left her after the war ended in 1988, bitter and despairing over her refusal to abandon her family's customs of dancing and singing, considering it a betrayal. He harbored resentment towards her, and his opportunity for revenge came after the collapse of systems and the absence of law post-2003, when chaos engulfed the country. He then led the crowds who came out with a fatwa from religious scholars to eradicate the Gypsies, targeting her house and ultimately taking her life. What exacerbated the barbaric attack on the Gypsies was the absence of any supporters for them in that ordeal, unlike other components that faced terrorism, such as the Yazidis, Christians, and Feyli Kurds. The media abandoned its support and assistance, and judicial institutions preferred silence and refrained from defending them. There was not even moral solidarity from public opinion, due to the derogatory view clinging to their being by the conservative tribal and religious society. Nahi Al-AmiriAuthor
