Who Is Iraq's 'Person of the Year' For 2015?

Al-Sistani is open to meeting with all of Iraq's communities and equally open to criticizing any sector of the community. He sends huge donations to the displaced people in the Sunni-majority Anbar province, part of which is controlled by the IS group. He has said that Sunni Muslims must be part of an all-inclusive national military and he refuses to describe the volunteer militias that were created after he called for all Iraqis to help defend the country against the IS group as “militias”.

He deliberately insists they are “volunteers” - because when the emergency is over, volunteers will return to their homes. Many have said that if it were not for al-Sistani, Iraq would have been divided along sectarian lines long ago.

Anwar al-Hamdani

Anwar al-Hamdani is an Iraqi television presenter for a current affairs show on the private Al Baghdadia satellite television station, broadcasting from Cairo. His show has had a big impact on the Iraqi street over the past year as well as in previous years. By taking a critical position against past and present politicians, he has influenced thousands of Iraqis both inside and outside the country. Threatened with arrest for his free and frank expression in the past, al-Hamdani has also broadcast a number of important stories on political corruption. He has proven the power of the Iraqi media to mobilize popular sentiment.

Hadi al-Ameri

If 2014 was the year of the Islamic State group, then much of 2015 belonged to Iraq's volunteer militias. Drawn to fight the extremists by a call from al-Sistani, the volunteer force has gone from a rag-tag bunch of unskilled patriots to a common sight on many streets in southern Iraq, an unofficial army paid for by the government that is becoming more powerful – and some say, more dangerous - by the day.