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Iraqis find common ground – on a soccer field
In a match pitting Iraq against Iran, our reporter wades into the stands to find Sunnis and Shiites united.
from the June 19, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
A fetching teenage girl with green stars representing the national flag spray-painted into her long black hair sat with two women in shapeless black abayas and head scarves. They all groaned in unison as Kirkuk-born striker, and national team heartthrob, Younis Mahmoud missed one of Iraq's best chances of the match.
At least 700,000 Iraqi refugees have fled their homeland to this city of 2 million. So, for the Iraqi national soccer team, Amman is what Los Angeles is for Mexico's: Their favorite home away from home.
International soccer matches inside Iraq are of course, for the moment, impossible.
The fans efforts weren't enough to push the shabab, or boys, over the top in a lackluster 0-0 draw with Iran in the opening round of the West Asian Football Federation's championship, but no one really seemed to mind.
They chanted, they beat on drums, they chattered animatedly among themselves during breaks in the action, without seeming to have a care in the world.
But Mr. Shukri, a 31-year-old who grew up in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district, which has become a playground for kidnappers and sectarian death squads in the past two years, frowns briefly when I ask him what caused him to flee the country.
"Let's not talk about that today," he says. "That's not why we're here."
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