Symbols

When Kahramana helped the police catch the forty famous thieves by pouring oil in the jars where they were hiding, she became a famous character across the world. The magic talented hands of Mohammed Ghani beautified one of the most famous squares in Baghdad with a sculptor of Kahramana pouring the oil on the thieves who were hiding in the jars.

The sculpture stood in Baghdad for decades welcoming people from allover the world and telling them a story of a famous imprint of how beautiful Baghdad was.

My grandparents’ house was in Karrada where the beautiful statue stood. When I was a child, I remember my parents taking us there every Thursday night and we would pass by the statue at night on our way there. I still remember how fascinating it was every single time I passed by it. Every time I looked at it, I remember the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, which I read and watched its cartoon since I was five.

Today, Kahramana stands sad with some of her jars broken. A recent car bomb explosion broke some of them leaving it damaged like everything else in the city. Maybe the explosion was meant to kill civilians or army forces, but for me, it was also meant to destroy the jars to rescue the thieves hiding in them to help them continue destroying and killing people, but most importantly to rob the smile from our faces, rob our lives, and rob Baghdad’s beautiful appearance.

After insurgents damaged parts of this sculpture, al-Maliki’s government made sure to destroy the other. The Arch of Victory, another great piece by Mohammed Ghani, is on its way to disappear from Baghdad’s sights. Each arch consists of a pair of hands holding crossed swords. The two arches mark the entrances to a parade-ground constructed to commemorate Saddam's declaration of victory over Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. Since the US-led occupation to Iraq, Iran has become extremely successful in controlling vast areas in Iraq, especially Baghdad and the southern cities by deciding even what should stay and what should be removed. The first sculpture they ordered Prime Minister Jafari was the one in Palestine Street. That sculpture embodied the sever harsh treatment of the Iraqi prisoners of war in Iran where one Iraqi soldier’s arms were chopped off as he was pulled by two Iranian military vehicles from opposite sides. Today, the hands that held the swords of the Victory Arch are now bronze sheets curled on the ground.

Let them destroy everything they want. But what they don’t know is that history cannot be erased. Sculptures will be rebuilt and arches will be raised again one day to mark the new victory.

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