IRAQ: Intellectuals hail reopening of Baghdad’s Mutanabi Street

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The windows on the buildings just off Mutanabi Street in Baghdad are still shattered, remnants of a devastating car bomb that exploded in the city’s cultural and intellectual core last year, killing 30 people and injuring dozens of others.

Turn the corner, though, into the storied street of booksellers and that bomb seems like a distant memory. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki re-opened the reconstructed street last week, welcoming Iraqis back and vowing that the will of the people is stronger than terrorism.

‘The return back of life on Mutanabi Street is the return back of life of the Iraqi culture,’ bookseller Salam Mohammed Abud said Friday, as scores of people roamed the streets. ‘For any intellectual, any educated man, Mutanabi Street is considered part of his education.’

Booksellers laid out their wares, everything from maps and pens to Yanni music CDs and the Koran. Several Iraqi journalists documented the busy scene, on only the second Friday the outdoor book market has re-opened.

At the edge of the street, writers and intellectuals sipped tea and chatted at the Shahbander Café, one of Iraq’s oldest and most famous cafes. Many customers snapped photos with their cell phones; some even pulled out small video cameras.

‘I really apologize to explain in simple words my feelings to see Mutanabi reopened!!’ said engineer Mohammed Saleh Faiz, 33. ‘I am living in exile and feel nostalgic for it, for the gathering of Iraqi intellectuals, for the sellers, for the talks about books, writers -- about Shahbandar Café!’

-- Kimi Yoshino and Raheem Salman