On September 16, 2015 theOriental Institute of the CAS organized an international conference, which addressed the question of the meanings of democracy in the Middle East, Asia, and Russia and the role that democracy plays in the discourse of the political elites and non-state actors in these regions. The case studies at the conference described the situation in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, China and Russia. Democracy plays a crucial role in the efforts of the Western world to promote peace and stability and maintain international security. However, in recent years, countries such as China and Russia have explicitly offered an alternative interpretation of democracy to the public, both domestically and internationally, one which builds on national, cultural and political traditions and contradicts the claims for universality common in theWest. Furthermore, non-universalistic discourses on democracy have become popular among diverse non-state actors, such as Islamicmovements, non-formal authorities, or civil society across the Middle East and Central Asia. These developments have important implications for both the efforts aimed at the promotion of democracy and for the advance of democracy in general. and Věra Exnerová.
This contribution analyzes the status and life conditions to which the Aramaic Christians of Iraq, as well as the Iraqi Jews, were exposed to in Iraq; both groups being considered Dhimmis (Protected) by the Muslim majority of the country. It also comments on the temporary social emancipation instituted after the introduction of the civil rights law in 1959, a policy which continued through the 1970s, and on the marginalization strategies employed by the state authorities on members of the Christian community at school and in their daily life. The Aramaic Christian women in particular, due to an internal patriarchal code of behavior based on Christian tradition, were exposed to heavy oppression. The paper concludes by observing that in the years following the American invasion (2003), the threats to the existence of the religious minorities in Iraq were intensified to an even greater extent. The goal of uprooting the Christians in Iraq was pursued in an even more radical way than the persecution and expulsion of the Iraqi Jews in the period from 1941 to 1951.