BAGHDAD — For residents of Azamiyah, once one of Baghdad’s most violent neighborhoods, the opening of a department store selling party dresses, imported men’s suits and designer-label perfumes is a sign that a better future could lie ahead.
Just five years ago, Azamiyah was a terrifying place. Bodies of Shiites and Sunnis butchered in sectarian killings turned up almost daily, dumped on sidewalks or in trash piles, earning one street the name “Street of Death.” Fearful residents huddled at home. A U.S. infantry company on patrol here lost 13 men to snipers and roadside bombs during the bloodiest period of 2006 and 2007.
Now the glass-fronted five-story MaxiMall department store stays open as late as midnight, and Sunnis and Shiites shop side by side. Azamiyah is overwhelmingly Sunni, but salespeople say they get many customers from surrounding Shiite areas, drawn by colorful displays and air conditioning that offers a welcome relief from Baghdad’s dusty heat.
Multilevel shopping centers are still rare in Baghdad, and the $3 million investment by the Turkish owners of MaxiMall, which opened in April, is seen as a show of confidence in Azamiyah’s future.
“The terrorists have failed, and Baghdad is turning into a city of life instead of being a city of death,” said Umm Zaid, 45, browsing through the store with three children in tow. “It is no longer a risk to take my kids to the streets and shops.”
But many fear the calm won’t last.
Sunnis, though a minority in Iraq, were the dominant group under toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. Now they feel vulnerable to the whims of the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has been accused of stoking sectarian tensions by sidelining Sunni and Kurdish coalition partners.
