Shafaq News- Baghdad
Children in two of Baghdad'soldest central neighborhoods had little more than hand-pushed swings in acrumbling public square to mark Eid al-Adha this year, as residents say decadesof neglect have left Al-Kifah and Al-Fadhl without a single safe or modernrecreational space.
Shafaq News cameras toured thetwo districts during the holiday, finding no parks, playgrounds, orentertainment facilities of any kind, only the aging fairground rides atZubaida Square, which families said is the sole option available to them yearafter year.
"There is nowhere elseyou can take your children," Hussein al-Baghdadi, a resident of Al-Kifah,told Shafaq News. The square's hand-powered swings —a relic of another era—drew children not out of choice, but out of the absence of alternatives.
Al-Baghdadi did not spare theneighborhood's political representatives. Despite having MPs in parliament andofficials in state institutions, he said, Al-Kifah remains without adequateservices. "Chaos and disorder dominate."
"We are in 2026, andnothing has changed for us, despite the development and technology thecountries around us and the world are witnessing."
Al-Kifah and Al-Fadhl areamong Baghdad's most historically significant central districts, once drawingresidents and visitors alike to their commercial streets and communal spaces.
: Devotion and calm highlight Eid al-Adha across Iraq