Entering Karbala: Getting a Visa to US would be Easier

The whole idea of separating the city like this came from the authorities in charge of the two most important shrines in Karbala’s old city, suggests local lawyer Mohammed Nasir. It was supposed to be a little bit like the Vatican in Rome, which is a city within a city as well.

However the security restrictions also cause a lot of disruption to everyday life in this part of Karbala. Residents who live in the old city often have trouble returning home. Although they all have the special badges required to enter the area, they feel they are living an isolated life that is similar to those who reside inside Baghdad’s legendary, fortified Green Zone. And even employees working for state institutions here can never get to work on time.

Zuhair Salim is employed by the local government. But he says that every day he arrives at work late because of the rigmarole of security getting into the old city. “I ended up asking to be transferred,” he complains. “Just so that I didn’t have to go through security every day and so I didn’t have to walk such a long way to get to my office.”

Hashim al-Qazwini is another state employee and he told NIQASH he applied for what he jokingly describes as “the magical badge” six months ago. He says he even got approval from the city’s governor – this is fairly unusual - but that even he had not received his badge yet.

“Things would go faster if I applied for a visa to live in the US or the UK,” al-Qazwini jokes.

“The old city has become completely isolated from other parts of Karbala,” says Abbas Mohsen, who runs a clothing shop in the old city. “No vehicles can come in and that has a major impact on business. We are being forced to find new premises outside the old city because it’s just too difficult to bring goods in here without prior approval – and these take such a long time. Additionally the number of people shopping here has really dropped – they prefer to go shopping in malls and markets elsewhere.”

Taxi drivers with the special badges can operate inside the old city. Usually what happens is that the un-badged taxi drivers outside the old city will drop customers off at the old city gates. The visitors go through security and take another cab to tour around inside the old city.