Shisha and a drink over lunch: first bar opens in Iraq town liberated from Islamic State

This little Christian town in northern Iraq remains a sad, abandoned place more than nine months after Islamic State was kicked out. Row upon row of houses stand burned and destroyed. The churches are vandalised and blackened with soot. Only a fraction of the population has returned.

But after the first bar was reopened two weeks ago, things have been looking up.

Ya Hala – which means welcome – was once one of eight bars in Qaraqosh, and its return offers one small glimpse of hope for the ancient Christian community uprooted by Islamic State during its sweep through northern Iraq in August 2014.

Owner Hani Ayoub Yacoub al-Najjar, 63, is hoping the revival of the bar, which he ran for more than 10 years before Islamic State swept in, will encourage more Christians to return to their homes.

“When people see that there’s a bar open, it means life is going back to normal,” he said, speaking on a recent afternoon at one of the cloth-covered tables dotting the dimly lit bar.

So far, however, most of his customers have been Muslims from the city of Mosul, which was more recently liberated from the harsh rule of the militants. Denied the opportunity to drink during the three years they spent under Islamic State, many are happy to make the journey for the chance to drink at a bar again, he said.