Parking Crisis in Sulaymaniyya

In the narrow street of the Sulaymaniyya neighborhood where I moved after Abu Muhammad terminated our lease, I witnessed on a small scale how the space of the city could become a contention site. The street where I found a one-bedroom apartment was sandwiched between the military hospital and the military airbase headquarters. It was framed by large decaying villas and new apartment buildings on one side and the long, stern wall of the hospital on the other. With its mixed housing and its proximity to public services and highways, this part of Sulaymaniyya was home to a transient population of civil servants and medical workers, mainly Saudis and Arabs but also increasingly Filipinos.

As a result of long hours spent at home, waiting for my informant's phone calls, setting up appointments, writing down my field notes, or simply trying to avoid the midday sun, I followed the activity on the street below my window more closely than in suburban Sultana. There was more to be observed, too. Sulaymaniyya was livelier than the banks of the Wadi Hanifa and the street was bustling with traffic, especially in the early morning and early afternoon when the tide of cars came in and went out with the beginning and the end of the official workday.