In Iraq’s Mosul, art springs up from ruins almost 5 years after the ouster of ISIS : NPR

Mosul, Iraq — Women were not allowed to show up in public after ISIS hijacked this northern city of Iraq in 2014. They had to wear a black veil with slits for the eyes and a long black robe. If a woman violates the dress code, they may be whipped and her husband may be fined.

Colorful murals are now appearing throughout Mosul on the bullet-strafed façade. And many of them are huge pictures of women’s faces.

This vibrant street art shows that Mosul is undergoing a vigorous reconstruction about five years after ISIS dominates the city and fights fiercely to drive it out.

20-year-old Rusul Ahmed painted two murals.

“When a woman shows her beauty, that’s not something wrong,” she says.

A college student stands in front of a 15-foot-high mural of a woman with black hair and dramatic eyeshadow. In the portrait, the woman’s chin is slightly protruding, confident and perhaps even rebellious.

“When ISIS came here, they had to cover her body, her face. That’s wrong because women should be able to live their lives,” says Ahmed. ..

Mosul could not imagine the murals of Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande under ISIS

The mural in which Ahmed stands in front of him is on the long wall where ISIS posted its strict moral rules and the punishment for breaking them. Now the walls are covered with bright portraits. Most are women, including the famous Iraqi British architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016.

Under ISIS rules, the people of Mosul were not allowed to carry satellite TV or listen to Western music. Ahmed and her team at 7Arts would certainly not have been allowed to paint such a mural featuring pop stars Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande.

“This is Ariana, Ariana Grande. People here love her!” Ahmed points to a colorful face painted in bold colored blocks. “And I want to improve my language, so she listens to her,” she adds with a laugh. “She helped me a lot.”

There are efforts to rebuild the destroyed mosque

Many of Mosul’s old towns across the Tigris River from the Ariana Grande paintings are still in ruins. ISIS fighters dug up an ancient city, and the area was bombarded in 2017 by a relentless Iraqi and US bombardment campaign to ward off militants.

When ISIS fighters fled, they blew up the iconic minaret and chapel of the Arnuri Mosul in Mosul. Currently, there are international efforts to rebuild them.

While parts of the old town are returning, many walls of its narrow alleys are still marked with shrapnel.

Munir Majed, along with a group called Art Revolution, began painting murals here three years ago, emphasizing the city’s heritage. A 21-year-old engineering student points to a picture of a woman looking out the window.

“Women are looking at the symbol of Mosul,” he says. “The statues, gates, destroyed by ISIS. And when you see the walls in the background, there are ammunition holes. Most of these walls are exactly the same, with ammunition holes.”

When asked if he could paint something like this while ISIS ruled the city, Majed laughs nervously. He cuts his finger across his throat and says he would have been killed if he tried to do this under ISIS.

Colorful murals counter the dark times under ISIS

On the elevated highway in the eastern part of Mosul, there is a graffiti-like mural with orange letters and a red heart that says “I HEART MOSUL”. And right next to it is a larger colorful painting of an Iraqi woman’s face.

“It’s like a color carnival,” says Ali Al-Baroodi, a lecturer in the Faculty of Media Studies at Mosul University. “Similarly, is it more symbolic?”

Born and raised in the city, 40-year-old Barudi calls himself “Mosulgrapher” Because he is trying to record what is happening in his hometown. He says the recent murals are a direct reaction to the dark ages of the ISIS occupation.

“So Mosul, and especially Mosul’s artists, are free to react with color,” he says. “I saw women obscured in black at that time. Now I can see women free on the walls and outside the walls.”

Throughout history, Mosul has been a colorful, multi-ethnic city, says Barudi.

And ISIS’s dark vision for the place never succeeded, he says.