Everyday life beyond politics
Rather than centring conflict, the research highlights leisure as a key lens for understanding Iraq in the twentieth century.
As Pelle Valentin Olsen explained:
“Leisure is really this lens through which we can understand much bigger debates… about morality, productivity, nationalism, and gender.”
Leisure emerged as a clearly defined category alongside work and education, prompting debates about how free time should be used and regulated.
New urban spaces, such as cafés, cinemas, and nightclubs, became central to this transformation, reshaping how cities like Baghdad were experienced.
Schools, discipline, and free time
A key focus of the seminar was the role of education in shaping leisure.
Through missionary schools in Iraq, extracurricular activities became a way to structure and discipline students’ free time.
At the same time, these environments created new social worlds and relationships.
“Extracurricular activities… embody efforts to make leisure and free time productive.”
Yet students did not simply follow these frameworks, they also shaped their own experiences through friendships, reading, and everyday practices.
Leisure as a contested space
The discussion highlighted how leisure was never neutral. Different actors, educators, political movements, and social groups, held competing views on how time should be spent.
“Everyone had ideas about leisure… it becomes a battleground for competing visions of the nation.”
Activities such as going to cafés or cinemas could be seen either as valuable forms of modern life or as signs of idleness and moral decline.
Key takeaways
- Leisure reveals hidden histories of everyday life in modern Iraq
- Free time became politicised, shaping debates on morality and nation-building
- Schools played a central role in structuring and controlling leisure
- Students’ voices matter, offering insights beyond official archives
- Leisure spaces were contested, reflecting broader social and political tensions
Event: CMES Seminar – Idle Days and Nights: Leisure, Entertainment, and Everyday Life in Modern Iraq
Date: 21 May 2026
Time: 13:15–14:30
Location: CMES seminar room, Finngatan 16, Lund
Speaker: Pelle Valentin Olsen (CMES & Department of History, Lund University)