The people of marshlands ...in the garden of Eden Persecuted and driven out of the Iraqi marshes, where Sumerian used to live since Antiquity, the "Arabs of Marshlands" started to recover their territory drained by Saddam Hussein. After three decades, water is back and life too, as it was 6,000 years ago. Photos by Xavier Rossi and Marc Roussel/LightMediation Text by Marc Roussel
2439-04: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
Contact - Thierry Tinacci - LightMediation Photo Agency - +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 email: thierry@lightmediation.com
2439-01: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.The Moodeef of Nature Iraq NGO.
2439-02: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-03: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-04: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-37: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef). A "house" is usually made of several Moodeefs : reception, kitchen, sleeping rooms and sty.
2439-06: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-08: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-10: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds.
2439-13: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds.
2439-20: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef). The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein at the end of the 70's. Here, on the left, a road that once was cutting off the water supply has been blown up in 2003, when the regime collapsed.
2439-14: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-16: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-20: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef). The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein
2439-21: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-39: In the Central Marsh, Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish. The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein at the end of the 70's. Here, background, a road that once was cutting off the water supply has been blown up in 2003, when the regime collapsed.
2439-23: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-27: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-28: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-29: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-01: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds. The Moodeef of Nature Iraq NGO.
2439-32: Fishing in the Al Fahud marshes.
2439-33: The Madan (Arabs of the marshlands) live only from fishing and hunting birds. Central Marshes, near Al Chabaish.
2439-35: The Sumerian domesticated the water buffalo 4000 years BC to use the meat and the milk. Today, the Madan still live with this unique animal.
2439-36:In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef).
2439-38: A shia family in his Moodeef (reed house) in the Al Bahar village, in Hammar Marshland (background, a picture of Ali, Mahomet's son in law and Saint of the Shias).
2439-37: In the Central Marsh - Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish - the Madans harvest reeds they then dry before building their houses (Moodeef). A "house" is usually made of several Moodeefs : reception,
2439-38: A shia family in his Moodeef (reed house) in the Al Bahar village, in Hammar Marshland (background, a picture of Ali, Mahomet's son in law and Saint of the Shias).
2439-39: In the Central Marsh, Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish. The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein at the end of the 70's. Here, background, a road that once was cutting off the
2439-40: The Madan (Arabs of the marshlands) live only from fishing and hunting birds. Al Kasrah village in the Central Marshes, near Al Chabaish.
2439-44: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds. Fishing in the Al Fahud marshes.
2439-41: In the Central Marsh, Al Kasrah village near Al Chabaish. A Madan woman bakes bread.
2439-42: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds.
2439-44: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds. Fishing in the Al Fahud marshes.
2439-45: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds. Al Fahud Marshland
2439-51: A Madan woman braids dry reeds. Al Bahar village, south of the Euphrates river.
2439-47: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds. Al Fahud Marshland
2439-48: In the Central Marsh, Al Kasrah north of Al Chabaish. The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein starting at the end of the 70's. The Madan were persecuted and driven out of the
2439-49: Flying over the Central Marsh, north of Al Chabaish, with two American helicopters. The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein starting at the end of the 70's. The Madan were
2439-51: A Madan woman braids dry reeds. Al Bahar village, south of the Euphrates river.
2439-54: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds. Al Bahar village, on the right bank of Euphrates.
2439-53: In the Central Marsh, Al Kasrah north of Al Chabaish. The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein starting at the end of the 70's. The Madan were persecuted and driven out of the
2439-54: The Arabs of the Marshlands - called Madan - use since the Sumerian times such wooden pirogues coated with asphalt to carry reeds. Al Bahar village, on the right bank of Euphrates.
2439-56: A young Shia girl in his Moodeef's kitchen (reed house) in the Al Bahar village.
2439-58: Fishing cat-fishes on the Euphrates river, between Al Bahar village and Al Chabaish.
2439-02: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-61: A shia family head in his Moodeef (reed house) in the Al Bahar village, in Hammar Marshland.
2439-63: Fishing in the Al Fahud marshes.
2439-65: A Madan coming back from fishing in Al Fahud Marshland.
2439-67: Friday afternoon in Al Fahud Marshlands : kids playing in the water.
2439-08: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-69: Al Fahud marshland. Close to the road Nasiriyah-Basrah, this part of marshes is particularly polluted.
2439-70: Fishing in the Al Fahud marshes.
2439-71: Al Fahud marshland. Close to the road Nasiriyah-Basrah, this part of marshes is particularly exposed to western "progress". Some Madan have changed their stick for engines they cover with cloth
2439-72: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds. Hussein Sabri with his son in front of the Moodeef of Nature Iraq
2439-73: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds. Hussein Sabri with his son in front of the Moodeef of Nature Iraq
2439-74: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds.
2439-75: Unchanged since the Sumerian times (4000 BC), the Moodeef - the houses of marshlands' Arabs - are exclusively built with reeds. The Moodeef of Nature Iraq NGO.
2439-76: Baghdad. Part of the T-Walls built by the Americans to protect their facilities was diverted by Iraqis to express their frustrations. Here, a daily life representation of the marshlands.
2439-49: Flying over the Central Marsh, north of Al Chabaish, with two American helicopters. The marshes were progressively drained by Saddam Hussein starting at the end of the 70's. The Madan were persecuted and driven out of the marshes until 2003 because they were Shias and opposed to Saddam.
The people of marshlands Text by Marc Roussel Considered since ancient times as the Fertile Crescent and the Garden of Eden described in the Bible, the Iraqi marshes were still covering, thirty years ago, 8,000 square miles south of Iraq, at the confluence of Tigris and Euphrates. In these marshes were living, 6,000 years ago, the Sumerian people in reed houses with such specific domes. They even domesticated the water buffalo and invented the cuneiform writing. One believes that the Sumerians never left the Marshlands. Their current progeny has progressively been Islamized to the point they now form the main Shiite minority in the south of modern Iraq. At the end of the 70's, half a million people, called the Arabs of the marshes (or Madan), were living on tiny islands, mostly from fishing and bird hunting, from Buffalos and reeds, exactly the way their Sumerian ancestors did. Their houses Moodeefs - are still today made uniquely of reeds with this specific shape of a half ellipse and whose front lookd like a vegetal cathedral. Their boats are the same kind of wooden pirogues covered with asphalt they find in open oil fields, as a testimony of the country's natural wealth. Indeed, nothing seems to have changed since Antiquity. Since the Iran-Iraq war, the Madan population never stopped decreasing. After the fail of Shiite insurrection in Iraq at
the end of the Gulf war in 1991 and the decision of Saddam Hussein to drain the marshes to force out the rebels, the People of marshlands nearly disappeared, forced to exile or killed by Saddam militias. In 2003, thanks to the fall of the regime after the second war, some "resistants" from the marshes broke down the levees and the roads built by Saddam to block the water flood. Water started to come back, and with water, life and people. The progressive rehabilitation of humid lands was supported by the Program of United Nations for Environment since 2004. Today, the PUNE talks about a quick renewal of the Garden of Eden with nearly 30% of the initial surface back to water. An Iraqi NGO, Nature Iraq, even decided, under initiative of his founder Jassim Aiasadi, to work on a life preservation program with the help of local PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) and, as a symbol of optimism, to create the first Iraqi National Park for tourism. Even if Al Chabaish, Al Kasrah or Al Fahud are not exactly ready to host masses of tourists, the beauty of the scenery and the noble soul of people give the idea of a future probably brighter than the last three decades.