In Baghdad, some glimpse civility

They describe times of serenity, even joy, but the city remains divided, and its future unclear

BAGHDAD -- Taking advantage of a dramatic drop in car bombings and sectarian murders, Baghdad residents are once again venturing out to local markets and restaurants after dark in many parts of the city. They're celebrating weddings and birthdays in public places and eating grilled carp on the Tigris River late into the night.

A local television station has begun a feature called "Baghdad Nights," showing the capital's residents shopping, eating and socializing after the sun has set -- a sight that until recently was unheard of in most neighborhoods.

In Mansour, in central Baghdad, eight young brides, dripping in new gold given to them by their grooms, visited Tanya's hair salon this week. Just two months ago, the shop was lucky to get one bride a month. "Before there used to be no merrymaking for the bride," said Suad, a young hairdresser who would only give her first name for safety reasons. "Now they are coming again."

As Baghdad has changed, even security barriers have had a makeover, incorporated, if that's possible, into the urban landscape. Over the past six months, artists have painted them with depictions of Iraqi life, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and fantasy pictures of peaceful scenes.

But Baghdad residents are skeptical that their new freedom will last.

"It's in the hands of God now," said Umm Fatma, her roots covered in bleach at the hairdresser's. "We don't know the future."

McClatchy reporters who drove through Baghdad and telephoned residents across the capital discovered a city that has become calmer. The calm, however, is the result of a divided city.

Blast walls, decorated or not, still ring neighborhoods and markets. Military and police checkpoints checker the roads. In some mixed-sectarian neighborhoods, such as Saidiyah, in south Baghdad, and Salam, in central Baghdad, Sunni and Shiite Muslims are still fighting over turf. Other neighborhoods have become segregated into Shiite and Sunni zones. In some mixed neighborhoods in southwest Baghdad, reconciliation efforts have brought tense cease-fires between Shiites and Sunnis huddling on their sides of the neighborhoods.

Yet in some places there's a restoration of civility. In north Baghdad, in the mixed al Qahira neighborhood, Islam Mohammed ran through the streets on a recent night searching for his lost dog. The Sunni man ran from his Sunni enclave into the Shiite sector chasing after his German shepherd at midnight. Shiite residents offered to help, and by 1 a.m. Mohammed had scooped up his dog and returned home.

"Two months ago I would never have even thought of going after the dog there, not even in daylight," Mohammed said. "It is very sad that surrounding neighborhoods have become one sect. I hope it will not become a prerequisite for having peace in our lives."

On Sunday, "Baghdad Nights" filmed in Karrada, which had long been among the safer neighborhoods in the capital. Families held their children as they perused the aisles of the Warda grocery store or ate colorful scoops of ice cream at al Faqma ice cream parlor. The background music was "Salamat," an Iraqi song about peace.

But the Sunni enclaves of Adhamiyah, Ameriyah and Ghazaliyah never show up on "Baghdad Nights."

A drop in violence

Statistics tell some of the story. In December 2006, two months before the start of the U.S.-Iraqi plan to restore security to Baghdad, 1,030 dead bodies were found throughout the capital, victims of sectarian cleansing. Last month, that number fell to 174, a still-frightening figure but only a fraction of the previous year's. Car bombings dropped from 38 to 20.