The beleaguered Iraqi dinar
The beleaguered Iraqi dinar
2026-10-07 05:41
Ahmed Hussein
A new game is being played by the Al-Zidi government, just as it was played by the Al-Kadhimi and Al-Sudani governments before it. It is the “humiliation” of the value of the Iraqi dinar in front of the master of monetary masters, the US dollar. As usual, the victim is the Iraqi citizen. The Prime Minister and those who revolve around him, the ministers and those who revolve around them, the President of the Republic and those who revolve around him, the deputies and those who revolve around them, the parliamentary blocs and political parties and those who revolve around them, the Supreme Judicial Council and those who revolve around it, all of these and their orbits are far removed from everything that is happening in Iraq and it does not concern them at all if the country burns with everyone in it.
In a sudden, impulsive, and ill-considered decision, like all previous and subsequent government decisions, Iraqis were greeted this ominous Wednesday morning by a decision from the Central Bank of Iraq to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar by 18 dinars. After the official exchange rate was 1320 dinars per dollar, it became 1500 dinars per dollar today. This was also an impulsive and ill-considered decision taken by the Sudanese government, and before it, the Al-Kadhimi government did the same thing. The flimsy excuse of the three governments was: securing salaries.
This argument itself is an indictment of the government. Al-Kadhimi, Al-Sudani, and Al-Zidi all claim the state lacks the cash to cover salaries. So what do these three do? They reach into citizens’ pockets, draining them by devaluing the dinar against the dollar. This inevitably leads to price hikes for everything citizens need for their daily lives, from food and drink to transportation, medicine, and other necessities.
Imagine with me, the government crushing the citizen and robbing him of his savings in order to secure his salary. Is there a farce more blatant and unjust than this tragic reality?!
All three governments raised the slogan of fighting financial corruption – the two previous ones (Al-Kadhimi and Al-Sudani) were the most corrupt, according to the testimony of the members and parties of these two governments themselves, and we are waiting for what the days will reveal about Al-Zidi’s government – well, a beautiful and wonderful slogan, and everyone applauds it, but isn’t the emptiness of the treasury and the scarcity of cash liquidity due to corruption, so why don’t you go to the corrupt and recover the stolen money from them and secure the salaries with it?!
Why should the citizen bear the consequences of your silence about the corrupt bigwigs, your fear of them, and even your trembling before them, while you show off your bulging muscles against the simple, helpless citizen, just like the Iraqi dinar?!
Why do you take pleasure in “humiliating” the value of the Iraqi dinar and whipping the citizen with the lashes of prices while trillions of dinars are in the bellies of your comrades and partners?!
Why do you remain silent like the grave in the face of the big heads of corruption when they rebuke you if you think of touching their assets and projects, while you tear at the ears of citizens with your showy shouting wrapped in a miserable guise called securing salaries?!
Why are you trying to deceive the citizen with a ridiculous story that reveals the extent of your confusion and disarray in your thinking about how to justify the decision to reduce the value of the dinar and hold responsible one of the “foreign currency speculators and dismantle a network of illegal money transfers,” and the intelligence agency comes out with a dazzling victory in which it brings good news to the Iraqis about the arrest of this speculator because of whom we might have died of hunger and walked in the streets naked as if he were in control of the oil revenues?!
Why is your “shadow” parliament rushing to hold an emergency session to discuss the reduction of the value of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar? This parliament, which makes the suffering and misfortunes of ordinary people a platform for issuing statements sympathetic to the citizen, is no different from a puppet theater moved from above by people who hold the strings. This parliament, according to its constitutional powers, should issue an immediate and binding decision that forces the Central Bank to restore the exchange rate to its previous state. This parliament of yours, which is essentially a mixture of blocs and parties that run the government, should have prevented Al-Zidi and his government from issuing such a decision through the same people who hold the strings.
The decision to “humiliate” the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar will take effect, and the Iraqi citizen will get used to this situation, just as he has become accustomed to previous unfair decisions and tragic situations. As I said, the citizen is like his currency, helpless and unable to do anything. The employee, the laborer, and the unemployed are only concerned with securing food for their family or themselves. Despair has become a component of our blood, and there is no way to get rid of it except through a blood transfusion.
shafaq.com
