Archives » Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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Newsweek
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Aug 13, 2008 09:54 AM
By Lennox Samuels
It is mid-afternoon on a Friday and
the noise level is rising in Al-Wiyah Club, as urbane Baghdadis walk in
and stake out their places at coveted dinner tables. Men seated at the
legendary teak bar smoke, drink and call out affable greetings to new
arrivals. A few people walk through to the tennis court and pool area
out back, but most head for the restaurant, where waiters in white
shirts and black trousers weave in and out of the aisles. “Come! Your
place is here,” a beaming Dr. Tahseen Sheikhly commands a group of six,
waving them over to his large corner table. “Sit down; what will you
have?”
The crowds have been returning to Al-Wiyah, a venerable social club
that for years was a metaphor for the good life in Baghdad. Founded by
the British in 1924, it became a popular retreat for the city’s gentry.
The colonial grandeur is mostly gone now, the décor more workaday than
elegant; the carpet a bit worn; tablecloths faded. The building’s
exterior is still pocked from insurgents’ gunfire, most of it aimed at
neighboring high-value targets like the Palestine hotel, once a base
for U.S. Marines. The violence that engulfed the capital city forced
the club to close for more than a year, in 2003-’04.
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