Mosul today: Meet the photographer chronicling return of books, bikes, music

Karwan Faidhi Dri
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Months after Mosul dropped off the front pages of news media around the world, an amateur photographer in the city is telling the story of the city coming back to life. His twitter feed is filled with music and bike rides around a city that is determined to rebuild.

“I want to show people both positive and negative sides of Mosul to the world,” Ali Y. al-Baroodi explained.

An instructor at the University of Mosul, Baroodi spent more than three years under ISIS rule, risking his life by taking photos of the caliphate’s brutality. He said his father feared for his safety, telling his son not to take photos because, if caught, he would end up like all those who violated the radical principles of the self-proclaimed caliphate.

ISIS took over Mosul in June 2014, imposing a reign of terror on Iraq’s second largest city. An alliance of forces led by Iraq and backed by the Peshmerga and the international coalition, launched an offensive to retake the city on October 17, 2016. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the city liberated on July 10, 2017, but the physical, psychological, and sociological damage to the city is enormous. 

“We have to try to rid of reason behind the fall of Mosul,” Baroodi said. “For example we have to be open to music.”

Under ISIS, music was banned and no one dared to listen to music or play it, but “now things are changed. People are more open to music,” he said. 

Baroodi also took part in voluntary campaigns like saving the library of the University of Mosul. Thousands of books were lost, burned by ISIS. Baroodi and his friends from the Mosul Eye, a network of Mosul citizens led by historian and blogger Omar Mohammed who documented life in Mosul under ISIS, launched a campaign to save the remaining books.

“A morning of hope. It’s great to see these great people take the rare materials from down the ashes into a safe place,” read one tweet capturing the joy of finding some books that had survived ISIS’ rampage.

Baroodi believes that efforts like these are important steps to take to prevent the resurgence of another group like ISIS. 

Next week, Kuwait will host an international donor conference to attract funds and private investment for the reconstruction of Iraq. Baghdad has estimated that it needs some $100 billion to rebuild post-ISIS.

Baroodi said that “international organizations have been doing a significant work in city, and we expect more from them.”

Especially in western Mosul, which was heavily bombarded during the military operation to defeat ISIS. Much of the old city remains in ruins. 

The city is divided by the river, with eastern Mosul coming back to life but western Mosul largely ignored because of problems accessing it, says Baroodi, noting that the bridges were destroyed during the offensive.