The demand for false ID cards has spiked as bodies pile up in the Baghdad morgue at the rate of 35 to 50 a day, frequently bound and blindfolded, a jinsiya in their shirt pocket. The Iraqi Islamic Party, a hard-line Sunni group, claims it has tallied at least 65 Omars who have been killed since violence escalated in February after the destruction of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
Before the war, forged jinsiyas went for about 2,500 dinars, or $1.70. Now the price has risen to 25,000 dinars. It’s still a bargain compared with a legal name change, which can cost $400 or so in legal fees and bribes. (Also, the court publishes the new and old names in a local newspaper, which can defeat the purpose of getting the name change.) Tahsin Ahmed, a Shiite who married a Sunni, recently changed the name of his son Omar after his son’s teacher cornered him at school and demanded to know if he was secretly Sunni. “That’s a very dangerous name to have,” the professor told the boy. Fearing for his son’s life, Ahmed reluctantly bought him a fake ID with a new, Shiite name. Which? He’s not saying.
