Iraq – Iraqis bid farewell to the poetic icon, Muzaffar al-Nawab

Location: Baghdad, Iraq

Language: Arabic

Duration: 00:03:12

Voice: Natural

Source: A24

Restriction: A24 clients

Dateline: 21/5/2022

Storyline:

With great sadness and sorrow, Iraqi people and politicians received the body of poet Muzaffar al-Nawab, who died aged 88 in the UAE after a long battle against illness, at Baghdad International Airport. Nawab was renowned for his poems filled with revolutionary fervor criticizing dictatorial regimes for decades. His stances against the Iraqi regime led to his exile. People on social media sadly interacted with his death, posting thousands of photos of Nawab and many of his poetry. Following the announcement of his death, Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi decided to send a presidential plane to transport Nawab’s body from the Emirates to his homeland. When the body arrived at the airport, the honor guard carried the coffin, which was decorated with flowers, and raised a picture of him. The body was transferred to the headquarters of the Union of Iraqi Writers, where hundreds of people of different generations gathered to bid farewell to Nawab before he was buried in Najaf. 

Shot list:

• Soundbite (Kazem Ghaylan – poet):

“Nawab’s death is a great loss for Iraq. He was renowned for his courageous stances and resistance to dictatorship. He was the first to set new standards for public poetry and one of the founders of the Iraqi Writers Union.”

• Soundbite (Abu Laila – poet and critic):

“We lost one of the greatest poets of Iraq. His works put principles for popular and public poetry. He wrote a revolutionary poet that affected all poems.”