Yousuf Taresh Hilal Alamaya1
Republic of Iraq, Al Muthanna University, College of Education for Human Sciences, Department of English
E-mail: yousuf.hilal@mu.edu.iq
HNSJ, 2022, 3(5); https://doi.org/10.53796/hnsj351
Published at 01/05/2022 Accepted at 04/04/2022
Abstract
This study aims at shedding light on oppression and injustice practised by Iraqi tribe chiefs towards tribe individuals nowadays. The current study draws upon the oppression inherent in the tribe conventions and habits that are utilized by those Sheiks for their interests at the cost of the poor tribesmen. This research deals with the key strategies of oppression that the tribe chiefs impose their will and unfair decisions on the tribesmen in their daily social and verbal behaviour when addressing the tribe individuals. Furthermore, this study arrives at the most important results and recommendations that can reduce and limit this problem of unfairness, especially in the Iraqi rural areas who have experiences the burden oppression.
عنوان البحث
الاضطهاد في الخطاب القبلي العراقي: دراسة لغوية-اجتماعية
يوسف طارش هلال العميه1
1 جمهورية العراق، جامعة المثنى، كليّة التربية للعلوم الإنسانية، قسم اللغة الإنجليزية
البريد الإليكتروني: yousuf.hilal@mu.edu.iq
HNSJ, 2022, 3(5); https://doi.org/10.53796/hnsj351
تاريخ النشر: 01/05/2022م تاريخ القبول: 04/04/2022م
المستخلص
تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى تسليط الضوء على ظاهرة التعسف والظلم الذي يمارسه رؤساء العشائر والقبائل العراقية على ابناء عشائرهم في وقتنا هذا. تستعرض الدراسة الحالية الظلم الموجود في العادات والقيم العشائرية الموروثة في العراق والتي يستثمرها هؤلاء الشيوخ لخدمة مصالحهم الخاصة على حساب مصلحة ابناء العشيرة المساكين. وتتقصى هذه الدراسة اللغوية الاجتماعية أهم استراتيجيات الظلم والإجحاف التي من خلالها يفرض هؤلاء الزعماء الطغاة أرادتهم وقراراتهم الجائرة على مرؤوسيهم في سلوكهم الاجتماعي اليومي واللفظي عند مخاطبة أفراد القبيلة. وتوصلت هذه الدراسة الى أهم النتائج والتوصيات والاقتراحات التي من شانها تقليل مشكلة الظلم المستأصلة وخاصة في مجتمع الريف العراقي الذي يقع عليه العبء الأكبر من الاضطهاد.
1. Tribe: Advantages and Disadvantages
Following to Hornby (1974: 941), tribe (Qabela) is a “racial group” whose members share the same customs, traditions and language and headed by a chief referred to as Sheik. Arab tribes are said to descend from Yemeni tribes. Every tribe consists of clans (ɁSeera). Named by its oldest grandfather or by the name of the place where the tribesmen had once upon time settled, all Arab tribes consider the tribe as a symbol of their national identity (بامطرف,1998: 27-28). In fact, the tribe relations are a two-edged sword because it has pros and cons. On the one hand, it offers protection for tribesmen and establishes integration and solidarity between them, which encourages the individual to take revenge on his enemies with the company of his fellow tribesmen. On the other hand, the tribe-minded people are subject to bitter criticism because of their blind loyalty to each other irrespective the truth and falsehood. In addition, tribe’s traditions, unlike government’s practices, are stigmatized since they do not meet the society’s needs (ibid: 29).
Looked at from another angle, Iraqi tribes’ national role in conquering occupation and bondage is quite evident. Led sheik Shalaan Abu-Choon, Dhuwalim tribe in the southern province of Samawah revolutionizes against the British occupation in Iraq in 1920, forcing the British troops to withdraw from the areas they first occupied and causing 43 dead and more than 126 wounded on the par of occupying forces (المظفر, 1989: 124-26). In the same vein, Diwaniyah clans of Shibel, Ziyad and Shelal rebel against Ottoman authorities, cutting down communication cables, an action that impels the authorities in question to launch armed attacks to crush this rebellion (المعموري, 2015: 21).
2. Tribe Heads: Dictators rather than Reformers
As representative and authorative figures in tribal communities, Iraqi sheiks have claimed to comply with the tribe rules and conventions taking into consideration the tribesmen’s interests. Characterized by their strict justice in accordance with the tribe norms, sheiks allege to inculcate the principles of courage, generosity, championship, honour, respect, integrity, being helpful and obedience of their heads in the tribesmen and their conduct. Asserting that they are the first to sacrifice and the last to benefit, tribe heads are hospitable and sociable. As a consequence, they are proud of holding great banquets for other sheiks, statement, officials and other chief men in society (صلاح الموح, 2012: 17-19). Unfortunately, they exclude the poor peasants from these fabulous invitations. Is this fair for those respectable heads to rule out the needy? What aggravates this suffering is that these invitations are not financed by the sheiks themselves but they are paid by the tribesmen, including the poor. The question that arises in this respect is where is the respectful sheik’s hospitality? It is unfair, yet no one dares to publically condemn this oppressive practice for the predicated punishment to be made by these totalitarian figures (ibid.).
Serving as judges among the tribesmen, sheik nowadays, unfortunately, accepts to be bribed and gets too much money to settle the disputes that may arise between individuals in his tribe or between some individuals in his clan and another clan. These unjust decisions, which first guarantee this informal judge’s financial interest, deepen the oppressed people’s condemnation and denouncement of this despotic rule (صلاح الموح, 2012: 20).
It is worth mentioning that in the past sheiks are more humble and sit alongside other poor tribesmen and peasants on the ground having their simple meals. Hardly, one could realize oppressive remarks produced by tribe heads in all of life. Put differently, the sheik was such an indistinguishable individual that all people respected him and comfortably obeyed his instructions without reluctance (Nagl, 2007: 17).
3. Oppression in Althusser’s Theory
Tackling class-struggle in capitalist countries such as France and Britain, Althusser (1970, cited in MacDonnell, 1986: 27-31), the well-known Marxist philosopher, demonstrates the phenomenon of divisiveness in capitalism, arguing that capitalist systems are apparently exhibiting egalitarian relations in all fields of life, yet the apparatuses they adopt reveal unjust practices. In Britain, for instance, education is claimed to be free for all citizens, but this is not the case for the secondary schools where only the elite enjoy this freedom. In this paradigm, Althusser affirms that there are two types of apparatuses established by the state that govern individuals’ conduct, namely Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs, henceforth) and Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs, for short), by which the ruling classes controlled the ruled classes. RSAs involve police, army forces, court and the like while ISAs imply education, religion, the family, the law, the political parties, the trade unions, communication and culture.
Accentuating the significance of reproduction of production, Althusser points out that the bourgeoisie tries to minimize the wages of the workers to render them work day by day with the purpose of making use of the latter’s surplus effort in favour of the former. These proletarians, who are considerably oppressed, act as the infrastructure of the society, upon which the bourgeoisie, who constitute the superstructure, depend in their prosperity on such inconvenience (MacDonnell, 1986: 27-31). It is worth signaling the infrastructure base consists of three elements: (1) the forces of labourers, (2) the means or the materials of production, and (3) the relations of production. By contrast, the superstructure part pertains to ideology and culture (ibid.).
In tribe conventions, peasants work hard but earn little money because more than half of their production goes to the owners of the land they grow, i.e. the sheiks. This practice, it should be acknowledged, is meant to keep the gap between the ruling chasses and the ruled ones great, creating a capitalist community with the former, which serves as the bourgeoisie and the latter the proletarian (ibid: 33). Consistent with this view, ideology can be understood as a normative system by virtue of which an individual is in imaginary relations to the real relations prevalent in a given society. Here, the subordinate class members are obliged to experience oppression by the dominate class, with no considerable resistance by the latter group. Put differently, the ruling class’s severe prosecution is so constant that the oppressed classes accept it as a norm rather than exception (ibid.).
4. The Concept of Oppression
Following Hornby (1974: 599), oppression implies a cruel and unjust rule issued towards an individual or a group of people. This definition is supplemented by Charlton (1998: 8)’s explanation which states that “oppression occurs when individuals are systematically subjected to political, economic, cultural or social degradation”, holding that this social phenomenon corresponds to domination vis. subordination distinction or superiority vs. inferiority dichotomy. Emphasizing that oppression can be legitimized, Deutsch (2006: 10) affirms that oppression is viewed as a systematic subjugation amounting to formal and natural behaviour the purpose of which is to dehumanize the wronged.
It has been pointed out that justice is the defining characteristic of the leader, but this is not the case for sheiks that treat the tribesmen unjustly. The tribe heads hold control over their tribesmen, especially the peasants by virtue of hegemony. Baker and Ellece (2011: 160) argue that hegemony involves imbalance of power between the dominant and the dominated people. Accordingly, the democratic states, such as America and Britain, exhibit many kinds of oppression in favour of the ruling elite. Analogously, tribesmen exercise unjust decisions by the tribe’s head though the latter claims to be fair, generous and unbiased.
5. Oppression Strategies
According to Heldke and O’Connor (2004: 21), oppression is mainly recognized by one of the following strategies that are, to a great extent, interrelated: violence, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness and cultural imperialism. The following is a concise account of these strategies.
5.1 Violence
As the most visible form of oppression, violence refers to brutality or cruelty by which the aggressor wildly plots against his/her target while the victim helplessly surrenders to the oppressor (Al Matrafi, 2006: 801). Here, the victim would suffer from physical damage and destruction in spite of the fact that the agent has no motive to cause such detrimental effects. Involved in this strategy are women against whom there are plenty of assaults and hate crimes that usually arise between ignorant individuals or between people with little education (Heldke and O’Connor, 2004: 26).
In tribe context, women have been burdened with gross injustice; the tribe leader can marry her to someone from another tribe whom she cannot stand without objection simply because her brother or cousin killed her to-be-husband’s brother. This oppressive practice is justified on the basis that such marriage creates a kind of relative relationship according to the tribe’s traditions. Nonetheless, this assumption is untenable because it leads to further problems. In the same vein, tribal woman is opinionless creature, but she is obliged to carry out what is required, and is subject to serve corporal punishment if found defective in her countryside duties (ibid.).
5.2 Exploitation
Related to utility and maneuvering, exploitation is described as taking advantage of people’s toil to attain profit while not making for them fairly (Al Matrafi, 2006: 83). Though paid, workers’ efforts in sweet shops are likely to be taken advantage of because the workers are poorly paid. Similarly, African miners are exploited when hiring their mining instruments (Heldke and O’Connor, 2004: 23). Based on capitalism, exploitation creates two opposing classes of people, rich and poor, or alternatively called halves and halve-nots respectively. It is halves that make use of halve-nots, a process that renders the wealthy wealthier and the poor poorer (ibid.).
In Iraqi tribal context, it is the sheik that saves no effort to absorb the tribesmen’s toils by forcing them to pay for his expenses or gather money for building his house, for instance, to repair his old car or to buy a new one, or bring some sheep for his invitations, etc. These acts are claimed to overtly display a kind of co-operation as a leading feature of Iraqi tribes, but they are gross injustice, indeed. Put differently, the tribesmen in question are pressurized to pay for tribe heads to avoid future social and psychological troubles they are likely to subject to (بامطرف, 1980: 19-20).
5.3 Marginalization
Heldke and O’Connor (2004: 24) hold that marginalization implies “confining a group of people to a lower social class”, arguing that it is a matter of exclusion. Drawing upon in-group vs. ou-group dichotomy, marginalization is associated with social identity which emphasizes membership and unity of a given community ruling out the others as outsiders and strangers (Benwell and Stokoe, 2006: 25). Marginalization falls within the scope of ISAs postulated by Althusser since such a resultant inequality is brought about by the hegemonic ideology prevalent in a society. Supplemented by Trudgill (1974: 35)’s view of differentiation, marginalization manifests itself in stratification in a given society. Referring to the hierarchical ordering of social groups, stratification creates different economic and social classes and, subsequently, results in manipulation of lower classes by the upper ones. Yule (2010: 113) holds the view that black English, which is spoken by black people in the United States of America, is stigmatized and condemned. When engaged in schools, the black children are not permitted to use this language at school, an oppressive act that sparks dire consequences. The children at issue arise in a revolt because they feel that they are marginalized, believing that when a language is deemed inferior, its speakers will then be inferior simply because language is a symbol of social identity and solidarity.
Suffering from flagrant marginalization, well-intentioned tribesmen are not invited to important meetings held by the tribe leader. Nor are they allowed to engage in a decisive judgement concerning a debatable case in the tribe affairs so that their unbiased arguments may embarrass the sheik. Accordingly, such important gatherings are attended by the flatters who enthusiastically uphold the leader irrespective of the truth and suitability of the latter’s opinion. Unblessed and damned are the flatters’ conducts.
5.4 Powerlessness
This strategy of injustice recommends that some people are more powerful than others and, therefore, those in power take over those with less power or without. Regarded as the strongest form of oppression since it permits people to both subjugated themselves and others, this strategy touches upon the slaves who bitterly suffered from their masters. However, the slaves at hand do not live up to the fact that there is something wrong with the society to maltreat tem, thinking that everything goes right and justly (Heldke and O’Connor, 2004: 25).
Closely linked with this strategy is culture of silence where oppressed people are so afraid of the dire consequences arising from their possible responses that they cannot speak out and state the injustice they are constantly liable to. Sue to such continued silence, the oppressed people’s language will gradually be free of anti-oppression words. Is not this the extremist version of dictatorship and totalitarianism? (Macedo, 1921: 43).
Iraqi tribal discourse sees this type of injustice in the sheik’s verbal conduct when he experiences his authority over the poor peasants and helpless employees in his tribe. Some people elsewhere serve as slaves; they are washing dishes, cleaning the house, cooking and being as hosts for the guests. Those powerless people are compelled to do so to earn their living though their wages are insufficient. Is not this bondage? Where is the tribe leaders’ generosity they claim to be famous for?
5.5 Cultural Imperialism
This type of strategy is concerned with advocacy of the conventions and values of the dominating class’s culture by the dominated class. Put otherwise, the beliefs and rules of the controlling class are disseminated and spread within the society at the cost of those of the controlled class (s) (Heldke and O’Connor (2004: 25). For example, American culture is based on Christian value system paired with an Anglo culture stemmed from Britain. Accordingly, English is the dominant language in America, while other languages are “looked down upon”. The same can hold for India, whose people largely speak English so far and behave like the British because it was once upon a time occupied by the British (ibid: 26).
Characterized by stereotypes, the oppressed people are seen as Others that have no independent, social identities. As a result, the white man can have a distinguished identity because he has the most power while the rest are groups of Others (ibid.).
It is worth noting that educated people in a tribe are embarrassed because the sheik is envious to them and jealous of their grand analysis of all issues. In other words, the tribe leader can be in no match with them and, therefore, tries to blackmail them and isolates them from any verbal contribution, claiming that they are good at their specifications, but are not aware of the tribal rules and conventions.
Consequently, oppression is realized by one or more strategies that are encoded in linguistic utterance as illustrated in the following figure that is seen as an analytic model.
Oppression
| Violence | Exploitation | Marginalization | Powerlessness | Cultural Imperialism |
Figure (1): Oppression Strategies (adopted from Heldke and O’Connor 2004: 21 and the researcher observations)
6. Oppression and Language
According to Trudgill (1974: 28-32, 105), language is a cultural and social phenomenon Being so, the values of a society are manifested in that society’s language. Language cannot be considered apart from the social context in which it is produced. One feature of the social context is the addressee. Speaking to a person of equal rank results in a more relaxed talk, while speaking to someone superior to you leads to less relaxed and formal talk. This influences can be recognized via a sociolinguistic feature referred to as taboo, which draws on avoidance of words that create punishment or insoluble problems. What is more, the strict rules related to taboo words are approved by the society.
To criticize a leader is not always an e3asy behaviour despite the spread of democracy. Put differently, your criticism for a leader depends on the contextual factors involved in the interaction. To criticize the president, prime minister or any government officials is less detrimental than a tribe head. This is attributed to the fact that a tribe leader’s response is more effective than any other official’s though the former’s allegations of big heartedness and being consultative (ibid.).
In Iraqi tribal situations, the sheik’s talk is replete with offensive utterances that are free from fairness and justice. Guaranteeing the addressee’s non-responses, the sheik can whip the slaves with a stick wildly if he found, for instance, his room untidy one day. This harsh violence, which also implies cutting in their wages, is accompanied by insulting statements like “Did not your dirty mother teach you how to work hard?”. Injustice can also be realized by tribe heads once a tribesmen plots against a person from his tribe or a nearby village or town and, hence, the former is entitled to pay a sum of money decided by the tribe leader (s) for this misconduct. Here, the sheiks seize the opportunity to utilize this conflict, forcing the aggressor to first pay them additional sum for them and, simultaneously, asking the victim to also pay them to get the fine bigger. Consider the following two exchanges between one of the sheiks (A) and the victim (B) respectively before holding a sit-in to settle the dispute (المعموري, 2015: 22).
A. Look, young man! This case is complicated and the victim is quarrelsome and obstinate. He might bring a law case against you and you’ll get imprisoned.
B. Oh, damn it. So what can I do? Tell me, please.
A. I talked to them and they were difficulty satisfied. They wanted IQD 2,500,000 as a fine, but I made it just IQD 1,500,000.
B. But you must pay me IQD 500,000.
A. You, Salam. This case is easy and commonly happens. You need not to be too much annoyed. Besides, there is no use of bringing a suitcase against him, don’t you think?
B. What can I do then?
A. I’ll get you IQD 1,500,000 from him and the dispute is over. OK?
B. OK. (ibid.)
Heavily relying on exploitation strategy, this authorative figure practices oppression upon both the aggressor and the victim. Alleging to solve the problem and avoid its consequential repercussions that might lead to fighting between more tribesmen and casualties, the sheik in question intends to get more money in return for nothing but some few words. Shylock, the devilish, cunning character in Shakespeare’s masterpiece Merchant and Venice, cannot manage to exploit two persons involved in a single event at the same time, Iraq tribe sheiks can (Al Farhan, 2019: 321).
7. Tribal Texts Selected
The following texts, which are randomly chosen, are extracted from the sheik’s speech during a reconciliation sit-in with the purpose of detecting linguistic expressions denoting injustice and oppression. To this end, strategies of oppression are inserted into the texts before the sentences of each text. Due to the curtailed space in this work and rarity of documented tribal discourse speeches, the researcher depends on a single speech for analysis, believing that this is an adequate speech simply because it involves many texts which will be discussed as soon as possible. Before indulging into the said discussion, it is necessary for the reader to be supplied with the contextual variables that will be of help in getting the main ideas that lead to the oppression strategies as indicated by Heldke and O’Connor, 2004: 24).
It so happened that a fight had broken out between Al Bu-Shibly, on the one side, and two families, Al Bu-Hammed and Al Bu-Karrar, from Al Mishahda tribe ending in the murder of two men from the latter families. As such, the two inflicted families vow to kill more people from the former family. On the passage of time, the tension is growing and the situation is risky especially for Al Bu-Shibly tribe. Consequently, the murdering tribe headed by its sheik tries to reconcile the murders with relatives of the murdered persons, and after many attempts, this reconciliation took place. As a result, Al Bu-Shibly undertook to hold the ceremonies of condolence for the murder men in presence of tribesmen of both families while the sheik of the hosting tribe seized the opportunity to deliver his seemingly innocent speech, which is covertly rich in oppression.
The following texts are adopted from :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?V=ICErAHZh7Y8 (Available on 20,April,2020) within which the oppression strategies are symbolically indicated.
Text (1)
“I declare before Al Bu-Shibly and Al Mishahda that Al Mishahda dress our uncle, Sheik Salim, the clock (Exploitation). Then we all heartily feel pleased and cheerful on this immemorial event to foster and strengthen the historical, unforgettable relationships that hold between our tribes (Cultural Imperialism). This leading characteristic is peculiar to Al Bu-Hammed Family (Marginalization). Today if they choose a five-year child or a woman, we are going to walk after him/her according to my father’s will (Powerlessness). On the behalf of those who recommended me to represent, I today declare that our freedom (the freedom of the two tribes Al Bu-Shibly and Al Mishahda), is surly to follow the two families, Al Bu-Furas and Al Bu-Hammed as our example in life” (Marginalization).
Textual Analysis
Inaugurating his speech with an initiative for recantation, the spokesman, who represents the tribe chief man, praises the aggressive party. This oppressive party is conducted by Exploitation strategy got the victim’s father and relatives refrain from their right to receive a considerable amount of money that is of help to the murderer’s family in accordance with the tribe’s rules and conventions as indicated by Deutsch (2006: 10). This strategy of oppression is followed by Cultural Imperialism where the sheik imposes his will upon the victim’s children and wife. Put differently, the sheik in question denied the casualty’s rights when he said that the sit-in is a remarkable and peaceful event that cannot be forgettable, a compliment that the spokesman made on the behalf on the murdered person’s family. Then the sheik employed Marginalization strategy when he assigned this generous tendency of abandoning the rights of the murdered person to the tribe which he rules. This strategy of prosecution is followed by two other strategies of Powerlessness and Marginalization when the spokesman declares that all tribe individuals should follow the two families, Al Bu-Furas and Al Bu-Hammed, a sign of belittling all other individuals and families in the clan as Nagl (2007: 18) indicates.
Text (2)
“If we are considered as an empire, we will have two emperors for Al Mishahda tribe; if considered as a sheikship, we will have two sheiks (Exploitation). We should seize this opportunity to pay tribute to and honour our Uncle Shamus’s father and all Al Mishahda tribesmen, admitting of no gap for enemies to weaken or divide us (Violence). We are going to encounter thorny problem, which demand that we should unify, co-ordinate and integrate our efforts” (Exploitation).
Textual Analysis
This text begins with Exploitation strategy when the speaker tries to confine the importance of the tribe to only two persons so called emperors in an attempt to invest the tribe individuals’ toil. This strategy is followed by Violence strategy when the speaker makes reference to enemies and how the tribesmen can defeat them. Here, mention is also made to the armed clashes between tribes and the role of chief men in settling these disputes. Exploitation strategy is again employed when the speaker demands the efforts of people to overcome the difficulties that the tribe faces, a task which is supposed to be the sheik’s responsibility as a fair judge.
Text (3)
“Today if I do not associate and combine with my brothers and relatives in my tribe, we will be threatened and endangered (Violence). A tribe leader should not distinguish himself by overstating himself as superior and underrating his fellow men as inferior (Exploitation). If I intend to regard myself as superior to you, you can tell me about this (Exploitation). We bow to the elderly people, women and children to maintain the kinship and mercy in this tribe and other tribes and clans (Exploitation). People are waiting for dissension and conflict between tribes, but we, by Allah’s will, are going to overcome this dissension bridging the gap between our tribes and uprooting the conflicts that Satan creates” (Violence).
Textual Analysis
Here the text starts with Violence strategy when the speaker sustained that the tribe is under threat by enemies and, in consequence, the tribesmen are required to fight enemies bravely and unify their fighters’ intention, stressing the interest of the tribe that, he asserted, overrides the individual’s as المظفر (1980: 29) demonstrates. Subsequently, three strategies of Exploitation are employed by the speaker, declaring that he is a humble man and his pride is resultant from the pride of the tribesmen; the sheik, he claimed, is paying attribute to children, women and elderly men, treating all people indistinguishably, an attempt by the sheik to seek for bridging the gap between himself and the tribe he heads. This tendency is usually justified on the basis that the speaker acknowledges that he has been prosecuting the tribesmen for ages and now it is high time to expiate his wrongdoings as Leech (1983: 110) argues.
Text (4)
“Satan whispers into the people’s ear marginal faith, impelling them to fight one another (Violence). When being afraid of Allah, Satan never comes (Cultural Imperialism). Satan is approaching to those with no real faith (Violence). We die defending for Al Bu-Hammed and Al Bu-Karrar (Violence). They are not unified so that all people and tribes can recognize the significance of this reconciliation (Powerlessness). When making this condolence rituals (Fatiha), we do not intend to deliver a lecture to you, but we want to get the tribes in question as well as people from other tribes acquainted with this reconciliation (Exploitation). It is shameful for some evil individuals in social media to socially understand some people and overstate others” (Powerlessness).
Textual Analysis
Beginning with three strategies of Violence, the speaker stressed the tough struggle between man and the evil, Arguing that Satan is tempting people whose faith is not firm by getting them fight one another in order to weaken them. In fact, some sheiks do as the devil did when they prompt tribesmen to quarrel with each other in order that they finally resort to the sheik who seizes the opportunity to make use of such problems and being bribed. It is worth mentioning that many sheiks got rich and buy modem cars and build beautiful houses because of getting too much money from such quarrels; they usually obtain money from both the aggressor and the victim. In reality, their speech about virtues of faith and dements of following the devil is odd with their devilish deeds because they themselves are devils. By the same token, the text talks about the sheik’s readiness, on the part of his tribe, to die for the safety and security of the tribe with whom once upon a time he quarrels. Moving to Cultural Imperialism strategy, the sheik touches upon the Moslem culture, as opposed to other cultures, that demands the strong faith in Allah as the only instrument to rule out the devil. Exploitation strategy is again employed in this text where he overstressed that the two tribes’ meeting and understanding of the problem result from the tribesmen’s effort. The sheik in question terminates his speech with reference to Powerlessness strategy when he condemns the negative role that social media plays in segregating the members of the tribes and sparks enmity between them.
Text (5)
“If the social media at issue do so, this is misleading because all people in different tribes and clans are related to each other as far as kinship is concerned (Powerlessness). This man is my uncle and that one is my cousin, and the like (Cultural Imperialism). Al Bu-Hammed Atahir and Al Bu-Karrar are our model in conduct (Marginalization). Let’s, by Almighty Allah and all prophets and all messengers, are a one single hand and not divide so as to complete our procession and message (Exploitation). The road through which this procession passes is unpaved and hard” (Violence).
Textual Analysis
Inaugurating this text with severe attack at the social media, the sheik uses Powerlessness strategy as if he said that he was not accountable for the aggressions that occur between tribes or individuals, a statement that runs count to the fact that there are the people who are close to the sheik, mostly not well-behaved ones, are usually tasked to plot against the honest people whom the sheik thinks are his competitors and may occupy his position one day. The speaker proceeds using Powerlessness strategy by emphasizing the intimate connection between the sheik and other tribesmen because of their kinship. This claim is misleading because interests, especially for those men who consider themselves as superiors and others inferiors, surpass all other criteria in this regard. Later on, the speaker prolongs talking about the kin-relationships as a Cultural Imperialism strategy when he distinguishes between Self and Others modes in this discourse, an unfair mechanism the aim of which is a discrimination akin to that interest in America between black and white people as Trudgill (1995: 113) concedes.
The following table shows the key oppression strategies as used in the excerpts mentioned above to pinpoint the mostly used ones alongside the less frequent ones.
| Text No. | Violence | Exploitation | Marginalization | Powerlessness | Cultural
Imperialism |
| Text 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Text 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Text 3 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Text 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Text 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 7 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
Table (2): The Mostly Used Oppression Strategies Alongside With the Less Frequent Ones
Conclusions
This study arrives at the following conclusions:
1. Sheiks practice a variety of oppression strategies as instruments to achieve their personal interests at the cost of the interests of the people whom they head.
2. Exploitation is the leading strategy that sheiks have long employed because the tribe poor men are easily deceived by such strategy that exploits ones’ emotional reaction.
3. Sheik also resort to Powerlessness strategy of prosecution to convince the tribesmen that there are some affairs that are out of their control though such an allegation is untenable.
4. Cultural Imperialism strategy is rarely adopted by sheiks simply because such a strategy is not workable as a device of oppression in the conventions of Iraqi tribes.
5. The tribesman is obligatory forced to obey the oppressive decisions issued by the sheik because there are no other means to make appeal to restore his rights. He will be severely oppressed if he brings a case against the sheik in the law courts.
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