Graham Foundation Grant | 2025
Against the Denial of Wetland: Environmental Stewardship in the Hawizeh Marsh

This research aims to counteract hegemonic frameworks behind environmental violence in Iraq’s Hawizeh marsh through spatial analysis and archival research conducted in collaboration with the indigenous Ahwari communities. The collaboration will be in the form of a series of workshops and interviews. The research project is supported by the Graham Foundation and led by Ameneh Solati and Farah Alkhoury. 

Long subjected to environmental injustice and violence, the marshes in southern Iraq are also positioned as critical infrastructure for resource extraction by oil industries. Since January 2024, Iraqi police have blocked access to the Hawizeh Marsh—one of the three major wetlands—to facilitate the construction of the Iraq-Iran Sihrab oil field, cutting off the indigenous Ahwari people from their crucial resources. This project critically examines spatial strategies that persistently manipulate ecological flows vital to the wetlands under the guise of economic growth, nation-building, and progress. These strategies simultaneously accelerate the climate crisis and threaten the survival of the Ahwari people, whose modes of living have for centuries been intricately interwoven with the marshes. Through spatial analysis, the research interrogates dominant narratives and archival gaps that perpetuate the marshes’ transformation and the erasure of Indigenous knowledge. Beyond documenting loss and violence, the goal is to provide a powerful tool for supporting local efforts in resisting ongoing environmental injustice.