The British Iraqi Friendship Society is sponsoring a British
Museum Late during the exhibition Babylon: Myth and Reality.
Full details can be found on the British Museum's website
Dr John Curtis, Keeper of the Department of the Middle East
at the British Museum has recently been active in attempts
to protect and safeguard the Iraqi cultural heritage in the
aftermath of the 2nd Gulf War.
Sir Terence Clark was the British Ambassador to Iraq in
1985-89 and on his arrival in Baghdad was intrigued by the
former Ottoman building in which the Embassy was situated.
His search to discover its history led him to explore the
wider ramifications of the British connection with Iraq
from the days of the East India Company to the present.
After the very well-attended inaugural reception, held at
the British Museum at the end of November 2007, the Society
took time to complete the formalities of registration as a
charity. However in April 2008, the Society has moved ahead
towards its goal of establishing itself as a worthwhile
medium for improving mutual understanding between Britain
and Iraq, but we are aware that much remains to be done. In
particular we need to widen our appeal to the British public
through a programme of events that enhances in the popular
imagination Iraq’s cultural heritage, which despite
its richness remains far less well known than other
countries in the Middle East. We also need to demonstrate
the opportunities for building a new relationship between
the two countries in the future. Your Committee has been
working to this end and I shall develop later some of our
ideas, on which we welcome your views. But first let me
review our past activities.
Please note, the British Iraqi Friendship Society, will be
holding their final event of the year, at the Middle East
Association, 33 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AX, it will take
the form of a reception with a speaker, name to be
confirmed.
The first lecture of the New Year 25th January 2010 at the
Arab British Chamber of Commerce, 43 Upper Grosvenor Street
Mayfair. will be given by Dr Livingston of the
‘Enheduanna’
Alexander Maitland, biographer and long-time friend of Sir
Wilfred Thesiger, will be speaking about the period between
1951 and 1958 when for several months each year Wilfred
Thesiger lived among the Madan or Marsh Arabs of southern
Iraq. He will illustrate his talk with many of Thesiger's
superb black and white slides.
