This article uses urban semiotics as a lens to analyze elite power relations in Iraqi politics, as well as the role and limits of impunity therein. The article focuses on the contestation of symbolism in Baghdadi public space between different political and security actors with a special focus on the symbolism of the Popular Mobilization Units (the Hashd al-Sha'bi) and the Sadrists. Understanding the informal rules and mechanisms that govern how elite actors utilize public space reveals much about how power relations are negotiated, upheld, and contested. It also sheds light on the countervailing pressures and considerations that constrain the impunity that elite actors enjoy.
Fanar Haddad (Sun,) studied this question.