Iraqi literature
Iraqi literature is in most cases influenced by the political history of the country. In the late 1970s, famous writers were given an apartment by the government and could at least publicate one book per year.
Literature ©Flickr ginnerobot
In exchange to those benefits, publications were expected to support and glorify the Ba’ath Party and Saddam Hussein. During the Iran–Iraq War, literature had to be patriotic in some way in order to strength the moral of the Iraqi people.
Because of those restrictions, not a few writers rather chose the exile. Iraqi exile literature often dealt with themes like being against the war or Iraq’s political system. Today, Iraqi literature strongly is influenced by writers such as Saadi Youssef and Fadhil Al-Azzawi.