BIBFRAME Work

Title

Political undesirables

Type

• Monograph
• Text

Contribution

• Saleh, Zainab (Professor of anthropology) (author )

Subject

• Political persecution--Iraq--History--20th century (LCSH)
• Citizenship, Loss of--Iraq--History--20th century (LCSH)
• Deportation--Iraq--History--20th century (LCSH)
• Iraq--Politics and government--20th century (LCSH)
• Citizenship--Iraq--History--20th century (LCSH)
• Minorities--Civil rights--Iraq--History--20th century (LCSH)

Language

• English

Classification

• DDC: 323.60955/0904 (Assigner: dlc)
• LCC: JQ1849.A92 S25 2026 (Assigner: dlc) (Status: used by assigner)

Content

• text

Supplementary content

• index
• bibliography

Summary

"Political Undesirables considers the legal making and unmaking of citizenship in Iraq, focusing on the mass denaturalization and deportation of Iraqi Jews in 1950-51 and Iraqis of Iranian origin in the early 1980s. Since the formation of the modern state of Iraq under British rule in 1921, practices of denaturalization and expulsion of citizens have been mobilized by ruling elites to curb political opposition. Iraqi politicians, under both monarchical and republican rule, routinely employed the rhetoric of threats to national security, treason, and foreignness to uproot citizens they deemed politically undesirable. Using archival documents, ethnographic research, and literary and autobiographical works, Zainab Saleh shows how citizenship laws can serve as a mechanism to discipline the population. As she argues, these laws enforce commitment to the state's political order and normative values, and eliminate dissenting citizens through charges of betrayal of the homeland. Citizenship in Iraq, thus, has functioned as a privilege closely linked to loyalty to the state, rather than a right enjoyed unconditionally. With the rise of nativism, right-wing nationalism, and authoritarianism all over the world, this book offers a timely examination of how citizenship can become a tool to silence opposition and produce precarity through denaturalization"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

A personal haunting -- Between uprootedness and reclamation -- The denationalization of Iraqi Jews -- Homeland eulogies -- The legal construction of Taba'iyya -- Haunted homes -- Gender ruptures -- The ghosts of Iraq.

Authorized Access Point

Saleh, Zainab (Professor of anthropology). Political undesirables

Geographic Coverage

• Iraq

Admin Metadata

• Date: 2026-09-11T20:16:50.702462+00:00
• Agent: cbc
• Status: c
• Derived from: 24049719

Admin Metadata

• Date: 2026-09-11
• Cataloger id: Unknown
• Description level: http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe-2-6-0/
• Description language: eng
• Description authentication: pcc