Baghdad: three lives under duress
In different neighborhoods, a shopkeeper, a Christian, and an imam try to carry on amid daily dangers.
from the May 22, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 4
Hopes pinned on Jamiyah grocer
But the big markets have been struck repeatedly by car bombs over recent months. That pattern has turned some markets into ghost towns as shoppers stay closer to home – and rely more on neighborhood stall-keepers like Haathez.
"It's harder all the time to get to Jemilah [a popular wholesale market in east Baghdad] – people don't want so much to leave their neighborhood," Haathez says. "And now they even bomb the bridges, making transportation less safe. So the neighbors come more to me and they ask me to please carry this and that item so they have right here what they need."
The head of household who feeds and shelters 18 members of his family – the number doubled recently when two sisters and their children were forced out of their strife-torn neighborhood – tries to remember that behind his booming business stands terrible violence.
"I give people a discount if they buy in quantities, and I let the ones having a hard time pay on credit, because things now aren't so easy," he says.
The tarp-covered mounds of products sitting out front – pallets of canned green beans, cooking oil, and Pepsi – attest to another "service" he has initiated: bringing large quantities of common goods here. That way, other neighborhood grocery vendors can supply their stalls without going out as frequently to the increasingly dangerous wholesale markets.
Tucked away as he is from any main streets, Haathez can serve his neighborhood without concern for Baghdad's 10 p.m. curfew. "Some of the big markets now close at noon," he says, "but if you need something you will find this shop open 24 hours."
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