--- title: Nightlife in Baghdad | TIME description: Better security means better nightlife in Baghdad, where tea houses, pool halls and restaurants are open late and tables are full canonical: https://time.com/video/8fvBX2GW/ og:title: Nightlife in Baghdad og:description: Better security means better nightlife in Baghdad, where tea houses, pool halls and restaurants are open late and tables are full og:url: https://time.com/video/8fvBX2GW/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8fvBX2GW/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nightlife in Baghdad twitter:description: Better security means better nightlife in Baghdad, where tea houses, pool halls and restaurants are open late and tables are full twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8fvBX2GW/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Nightlife in Baghdad > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Nightlife in Baghdad [Watch (HLS stream): Nightlife in Baghdad](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8fvBX2GW.m3u8) (4:15)  _Published 2008-09-22. Better security means better nightlife in Baghdad, where tea houses, pool halls and restaurants are open late and tables are full_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:00 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Voices in Baghdad, Six Years On](/video/B45R6F0H/) ### Voices in Baghdad, Six Years On [Booming Business Behind Baghdad's Walls](/video/Wh1aDIBB/) ### Booming Business Behind Baghdad's Walls [Displaced Families Return to Baghdad](/video/fKnZqg9E/) ### Displaced Families Return to Baghdad --- ## Transcript >> Pool halls, bars, and ice cream parlors are back or rather their customers are in neighborhoods of central Baghdad where one year ago violence continued to keep most residents indoors especially at night. A strengthened Iraqi security force and improved resident cooperation over the past year and a half has pushed the occurrence of violence in Iraq to a 4- year low. The gains are fragile and bombs still shatter the renewed quiet on a regular basis, but for Iraqis in the capital that has been rocked by war for the past 5 years, the relative calm is good enough to stay out late. Now Iraqi men, young and old, socialize until close to midnight on those nights. They drink beer openly in outdoor cafes and play dominoes. Both drinking and gambling are banned under Islam and both of these would've been very risky in some of these neighborhoods just last year when the area was dominated by Sunni extremist group al- Qaeda in Iraq and Shiite fundamentalist militias. >> What is the-- in Iraq what is and the Iraqi army that is thrown down. >> On 2 weeknights, TIME photographer Yuri Kozyrev and I tour the city with units of the Iraqi police force. Now the force has a serious presence in Baghdad's night life. Police commander Jabbar took us to some of the city's roughest neighborhoods. >> This bigger buildings such as Haifa Street. >> That's Haifa Street. >> Yes, yes. >> Before the war, Haifa Street with its towering residential buildings was the pulse of central Baghdad. The Sunni insurgency put more than a damper on that, but as security increased over the past 6 months, some of the city's oldest tea houses just off Haifa Street have come back. In pool halls in the Karkh District, groups of young boys and men laugh, drink, and compete for tables after dark. This restaurant is called Festino Iraq. Central Baghdad's Abu Nuwas Street is famous for its outdoor fish restaurants at the edge of the Tigris River. The fish is pulled fresh from the water, sawed through the middle, and then thrown over an open flame to create the traditional Iraqi dish of Masgouf. The owners of this kebab stand in the district of Karadah say they've stayed open for years despite the violence. -[ Foreign Language ] >> But for this baker in Karadah District, it's not all good news. Like residents and business owners across Iraq, he complains the electricity shortage is still a huge problem. -[ Foreign Language ]. >> For the pool players, beer drinkers, and ice cream shop goers the freedom to go out again at night in public is a victory, but it comes with a price. In Karkh, police sirens and traffic orders shouted through loudspeakers break up the late night traffic jams and on Abu Nuwas Street, the police are almost more ubiquitous than roasting fish. So while Baghdad residents may be finding ways to enjoy the relative security gains, it might be a long time before they get to do it without so many cops of the street. 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