Iraq Up Close

By Amanda Bower with reporting by Meenakshi Ganguly/Baghdad

PEOPLE

CLASS STRUCTURE People close to the Baath Party regime constitute a small upper class rewarded for loyalty with lives of luxury. A wealthy smuggler class makes its money--with the government's blessing--importing goods barred under U.N. sanctions. But for survival, 60% of the population depends on government food rations, which do not include any fruit, vegetables or meat

WOMEN Compared with their counterparts in many neighboring countries, Iraqi women enjoy tremendous freedoms. They work as doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers; they drive cars and dress and gather freely

TRIBAL TIES At least three-quarters of Iraqis are members of one of the country's 150 tribes, which are alliances of family clans. To stay in power, Saddam has cultivated the loyalty of influential tribes. He has also seeded the government and military with members of the Tikrit-based tribe to which he belongs

SOCIETY

MODERNITY Before the Gulf War, Baghdad was a gleaming, modern city with air conditioning, touch-tone phones, clean water and sanitation. Today the power supply is unreliable. Many middle-class families, desperate for cash, are selling their appliances on the street. Iraq has 26 heavily censored Internet centers, but one hour of surfing costs about $1; the average government worker's monthly salary is just $5

EDUCATION Once a destination for university students from all over the Arab world, Iraq now struggles to educate its own. A 2000 UNICEF survey found that a quarter of Iraq's children were not attending primary school

SPORTS Iraqis are passionate soccer fans. Saddam's elder son Uday heads the nation's soccer federation and Olympic committee. Athletes who have fled the country claim that he regularly tortures players, coaches and referees who disappoint him

POLITICS

SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT According to its constitution, Iraq is a democratic republic with an elected President and a 250-member parliament. In practice, it is a dictatorship. The ruling Baath Party has controlled all branches of government since it took control in 1968. The party's Revolutionary Command Council supposedly determines government policy; in fact, it does the bidding of Saddam, its chairman since 1979. The parliament rubber-stamps all council decisions. Last October Saddam officially won 100% of the vote in a referendum on his presidency, with many ballots cast in blood as a show of dedication for him

LIFE IN IRAQ has worsened substantially since the Gulf War

Literacy '85 89% '98 57%

Child mortality* '90 50 per 1,000 live births '01 133 2001 U.S. rate: 8

Life expectancy '91 62 '01 56

Deaths of children younger than 5

IRAQ Total population: 24 million (July 2002 estimate)

IRAQ AS WE KNOW IT

1918-present

British forces ousted the Turks by the end of World War I, and the British mandate of Iraq was formally created at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. By 1932 Iraq had won independence and admission to the League of Nations; in 1958 the monarchy was overthrown and a republic proclaimed

IRAQ WAS CREATED out of three Ottoman Empire provinces-one dominated by Sunni Arabs, one by Shi'ite Arabs and one by Kurds. Saddam Hussein is from the Sunni Arab minority that controls the country today

Iraq today

Shi'ite Arab: 60% Sunni Arab: 20% Sunni Kurd: 17% Other: 3%

THE IRAQI FLAG'S three green stars represent Iraq, Syria and Egypt-in anticipation of a political union that never came about. The phrase Allahu Akbar (God is great) was added among the stars by Saddam during the 1991 Gulf War

HISTORY

The land known as Iraq, often referred to as the cradle of civilization, has seen empires rise and fall over thousands of years. Some historical highlights:

THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION Sumerian and Akkadian eras, circa 3360-2000 B.C.

The Fertile Crescent, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was home to the first known systems of writing, irrigation and mathematics. Cuneiform was stamped on clay tablets to record early works of literature, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS Abbasid Caliphate, 750-1258

Islamic forays into the area began in the 7th century, and the Abbasid era is seen as a pinnacle of Islamic culture. A new capital called Baghdad was built, with great universities, libraries and public baths. It was soon a bustling center of world trade and culture

TURKISH RULE Ottoman Empire, 1534-1918

The region became a buffer zone for conflict between the Shi'ite Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Turks. Fearful that Shi'ite Islam would spread to Asia Minor, the Turks captured Baghdad and, with the exception of a Safavid period in the 17th century, stayed there until World War I

Sources: United Nations; Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations; CIA; Department of Defense; UNICEF; Iraq: A Country Study, published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress; Europa Regional Surveys of the World, 2003; Atlas of World History

Text by Amanda Bower, with reporting by Meenakshi Ganguly/Baghdad TIME Graphic by Jackson Dykman