Ahmed Hadi and his new wife Tiba Mohammed, like many young married couples in Baghdad, are not getting enough sex. The problem, they say, is not a lack of desire but of power -- electrical power.
Making love for many of Iraq's Muslim population not only requires a willing partner but also a sure supply of water -- preferably hot in the winter -- to enable the participants to take a shower afterwards before going to pray.
No hot water means no hot shower and therefore prayers, which take place five times a day for devout Muslims, can become a problem.
Either a couple avoids sex or they are forced to take a cold dip, not a pleasant prospect during the winter months.
"I have less sex than I want because there is no hot water to wash with afterwards," moaned Hadi, 25, a Baghdad local who works in the water sector and has only been married for two weeks.
"Sometimes, when we are in the middle of making love the electricity turns off so we have to stop. I get out of bed to put a generator on and then we have to wait for the water to heat up," he said.
On the evening of the Eid Al-Adha (Muslim feast of the sacrifice) holiday which started on Tuesday, Hadi had hoped for a night of romance.
"Unfortunately, the electricity cut out from 5pm until 11pm. There was nothing for us to do other than sit and look at each other. I did not get married just to have conversation," he said.
In contrast to the situation in Iraq, power cuts in Western countries often lead to a spike in births nine months later as couples abandon watching television to share a warm bed.
Baghdad and much of central Iraq is suffering its worst ever electricity shortage, said a Western diplomat. The power is on for just two to six hours per day in the capital.
In contrast, southern and northern Iraq -- where most of the power stations are based -- have more energy than before the US-led invasion when ex-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein used to divert most of the power to Baghdad, depriving everyone else.
Following his downfall in 2003, US-led and Iraqi projects have been launched to generate permanent power for all of Iraq, but so far they have failed to make much impact.
This is because the US-led coalition underestimated the dilapidated state of Iraq's electricity infrastructure following a decade of international sanctions, the diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese