Diyala poetry festival shows signs of peace in Iraq

Basim al-Dafaie, an Iraqi poet, was optimistic when he saw the restoration of art and poetry festival in his province of Diyala after four years of turbulence and violence.

"Life begins with hope and definitely one day the adversity will be removed and the smile will return again on the children's lips," said Dafaie, whose final lines of his poem he delivered in the first poetic festival, were carried out by Union of Writers and Poets on Thursday in Baquba, the provincial capital.

Dafaie, who was waiting eagerly for the poetic occasion for a long time after years of absence due to the security deterioration, told Xinhua correspondent that "the news of sorrow and distress due to the loss of relatives and friends during the violence were reported, instead of the good news of delicate and pleasing poetry."

"Most of authors and poets were killed or displaced during sectarian violence that's why I ended my poem, but I believe that art and poetry are the enemies of extremism and violence, I'll try my best to show the situation is changed and all of us have overcome the adversity and the smile will return to our faces," Dafaie said.

Media reported that thousands of Iraqi high-profile professionals have been killed or left the country due to violence and sectarian strife in the war-torn country after six and a half years of U.S.-led invasion.

According to the estimates of the High Commissioner for Refugees Representative (UNHCR), the number of displaced Iraqis is to be 4.4 million after the U.S. invasion in 2003, among which about 2.2 million fled to neighboring countries including Jordan, Syria and Egypt, with the remaining of 2.2 million are internally displaced.

In another place of the festival, Salah Zangana, head of the Union of Writers and Poets in Baquba, described the first poetic festival as "a beginning of establishing a new artistic house and it is an announcement for the union to start its activities of holding more artistic and poetic festivals due to security improvement."

"Dozens of writers and poets participated in the festival, most of them had recently returned home after years of displacement and sufferings," Zangana said.

Zangana also said that 11 authors and poets were killed while 40 others were displaced from their houses which were burned and destroyed by armed groups in the province, the groups do not want such intellectual people to continue living there because their existence is a danger against extremism and ignorance.

On his part, Ziad Mortadha, a journalist working for a local media, considered the festival as a "great achievement since it could attract many poets, authors, and people to attend and this is a sign of security improvement in the province."

"I admire such poetic festivals because the poets and their poems have great impact on treating the psychological damage in the hearts of thousands of people and this is the necessary need of what people seek out in the voices of the poets."

Nihad Kareem, a local official in the province, who was also attending the festival, said that the festival "shows the real picture of returning the normal life in the province."

Kareem noted that much money is wasted on trivial projects that do not serve the citizens but if one percent of that money could be spent on holding such artistic festivals, then "we will achieve much because there is no meaning of life without art and literature as they grant us with hope and entertainment."

Diyala province and its capital city, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations against them.

Source: Xinhua