KARBALA: ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002379

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/28/2018
TAGS: PREL PHUM IZ
SUBJECT: KARBALA: ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT?

Classified By: Acting Deputy Political Counselor Michael Ma for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).

This is a PRT Karbala Reporting Cable


1. (C) Summary: Iraqis in and out of government have shared
with PRT officers their concerns about Karbala's youth.
Contacts describe Karbala's youth as relatively
well-educated, increasingly distrustful of religious and
tribal authority, and often difficult to reach in Sunni-Shia
reconciliation efforts. Many young men are susceptible to
joining criminal or extremist groups due to lack of work
opportunities, lack of recreational opportunities, and
increasing difficulty in raising dowry funds for marriage.
PRT Karbala is working to address some of the problems facing
Karbala's youth through a series of initiatives, including
QRF projects to improve Karbala's schools and recreation
centers, and economic aid projects to jumpstart local
industry. End Summary.

Idle Hands
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2. (SBU) When PRT convoys drive through Karbala, the streets
are lined with happy children, impassive adults, and teens
with faces that are quizzically alive. One can almost hear
the internal questioning -- "should I regard this as a good
thing or a bad thing?" With limited work and recreational
opportunities, too many young men in Karbala are in the
streets to ask the question. Youth unemployment and
restlessness is largely a function of rural poverty.
Provincial Council (PC) Member Mohsen al-Kenani told PRT
officers on July 9 that farm families, hearing that police
jobs in the cities pay well, encourage young men to seek such
employment. Not all succeed, of course, and sometimes those
rejected are too ashamed to return home. Such disheartened
youths are ripe for recruitment by criminal gangs and even
terrorist groups, he asserted, whose leaders are skilled at
converting alienation into a thirst for vengeance.
Al-Kenani, like other contacts, singled out Sadrist cells for
trying to recruit young rural migrants.


3. (SBU) Sport is another means local officials have seized
upon to positively engage the energies of teens. Karbala
Director General for Youth Karim Abd al-Husayn al-Shiblawi
told PRT officers on July 9 that the province has 13 youth
centers, 70 fields, and 350 soccer clubs. Most of the
centers are dilapidated and in need of refurbishment and
equipment, the fields have no grass, and club players lack
uniforms and shoes. (Note: We have written QRF proposals to
help provide sporting equipment, computers and other
materials for these centers. End Note.) Although the PC has
made teen activities a high priority -- a recent debate over
whether to build a mosque or a soccer pitch was decided in
favor of the latter -- al-Shiblawi said that not enough money
has been allocated toward this end. Late last year, a
contractor began building a Karbala "sports city" that will
include an Olympic-size pool, fields, and tennis and squash
courts. But the funding ran out, al-Shiblawi said, and work
has been on hold for more than three months.

Questioning Tribal and Religious Authority
--------------


4. (C) During conversations with PRT officers on July 10 and
20, Karbala Tribal Affairs Department Director Ali Husayn
Abid Ali said the youth issue is the largest challenge facing
the province's tribes. Poverty, unemployment, and sheer
boredom are driving teens to rebel against traditional
authority, he observed, and this is being handled by tribal
sheikhs in several ways. Some recognize the seriousness of
the situation and are doing their best to come up with ways
for teens to play a greater role in decisions affecting their
welfare, he said. Most, however, unfortunately are choosing
to ignore the issue, despite an increase in criminality and
violence among the tribes. A few cynically are attempting to
direct the young men's energies outward in efforts to settle
scores with rivals. According to Abid Ali, youthful
rebelliousness is not confined to tribal males. Teen girls
also are causing trouble, partly -- he theorized -- in
response to media images and messages depicting the lives of
less-restricted females elsewhere.


5. (C) The hold of religious authorities over Karbala's youth
also has weakened. Muhammad Sadiq al-Hir, chairman of the
provincial hotels and restaurants association, told PRT
officers on July 18 that he believes "virtually 100 percent"
of local teens hold clerics here in contempt. Al-Hir related
an anecdote to emphasize the point: Despite the absence of a
law prohibiting it, unmarried couples cannot check into a
hotel together in Karbala. Why? Because the tourism police,
at the behest of the religious establishment, routinely
examines hotel registries. If the police find what they

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suspect to be an unmarried man and woman cohabitating, they
force the hotel staff to produce the couple. They then
interrogate the couple, confiscate their identification
cards, and require them to appear at police headquarters the
next day for further grilling, often with a religious figure
present to make them "swear by Abbas" never to repeat the
behavior. Such harassment, said al-Hir, is fueling the
hatred of Karbala's youth toward what they see as efforts by
the religious establishment to circumscribe their freedoms.

Toward Sunni-Shia Reconciliation
--------------


6. (SBU) Teens in Karbala can also be difficult to reach in
efforts to promote Sunni-Shia reconciliation. Prominent
Iraqi actor Hashim Salman, who stars in a weekly children's
television show, told PRT officers on July 6 that he strives
for a united Iraq and promotes reconciliation through his
vocation. For example, he said, during a free magic show he
presented to an audience of 3,000 Karbala schoolchildren
(including some from the 16,000 internally displaced families
Karbala education officials report reside in the province)
the previous week, he used his monologue and various props to
underscore that kids can be friends with other kids
irrespective of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.
(Note: The same message is promoted on billboards in the
province featuring two boys, one a tribal Sunni and the other
an urban Shia, holding hands. End note.) Parents in the
province "get it," he believes, and are doing a good job
inculcating their young children with the spirit of
reconciliation. Local teens, however, are apt to reject
messages billed by their elders as wholesome.

Relatively Good Schools
--------------


7. (SBU) Most of our contacts regard Karbala's rising
generation as at least as capable as its predecessors.
During a meeting with PRT officers on July 18, Governor Akeel
Mahmoud al-Khazali noted that the province's schools long
have ranked among Iraq's best. He added that, according to
the results of recent tests, five of Iraq's top 10 middle
school students -- including the top student overall --
hailed from Karbala. Abbas al-Awdah, headmaster of Karbala's
magnet high school, explained to PRT officers on July 27 that
the city has long had excellent schools, partly due to its
years as a haven for the persecuted Shia elite during the
Saddam years. PC Member and Information Center Director
Falah Hassan Ateya al-Yasi told PRT officers on July 21 that
the youth here impress him as far more worldly and tech-savvy
than he and his thirty-something peers, who "might as well
have been living in remotest Africa" during the Saddam
regime. (Note: In order to promote reconciliation, PRT is
providing textbooks and materials to the Karbala magnet
school and other high schools in the province. End Note.)

The Pursuit of Happiness
--------------


8. (C) Despite improving schools, many still see a bleak
future for Karbala youth. Abid Ali had an especially dark
assessment, predicting an unstable, nihilistic nation unless
young people's basic needs -- including the ability to marry
and establish households of their own -- are met. Reflecting
general concern in Karbala about the inability of youths to
afford to marry (the dowry or bride-price being the major
expense),the PC this month selected 150 young men (from 372
applicants) to receive grants of 1 million dinars (USD 833)
each to help defray wedding costs. Chairman Abd al-Al
al-Yasiri, who rarely fails to take credit for anything that
might boost his popularity, made the announcement on Karbala
Radio on July 20. The grants will be bestowed at a ceremony
to be held on July 31.


9. (C) Anecdotal information suggests that youths not
fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of provincial
largesse may be compensating chemically. Heroin and hashish
are widely available here, according to law enforcement
contacts, and -- as elsewhere in the world -- the primary
users appear to be young people. Karbala's media have
featured lurid stories detailing the downward spirals of teen
junkies as well as reports about narcotics smugglers taken
down in spectacular raids. We suspect many of the latter are
concocted to burnish the public image of police commander MG
Ra'd Shakir Jawdat, but we do not doubt that the regular
influx of tourists and pilgrims here provides ample
opportunities for both the purchase and sale of drugs.

Comment
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10. (C) Like our interlocutors, we will continue to keep a
close eye on Karbala's youth. The embodiment of the

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province's future, they are a bellwether in assessing
progress toward reconciliation and reconstruction. Although
heartened by the apparent anti-authoritarian spirit among
local teens, we hope to help them see that democracy -- like
a date palm -- requires careful tending if its fruits are to
be enjoyed. End Comment.
CROCKER