The Lonely Psychiatrist of Sadr City

In a deadly corner of Baghdad, nearly every resident has witnessed the horrors of war. One dedicated doctor risks his life—and his own sanity—to help those who need it most.

Photos by Marieke van der Velden

Baghdad, 2011 — The flats in Sadr City are lined up close together. This suburb is home to some three million poor Shiites. Swinging tires and rusty car parts litter the sidewalks. Green flags wave from electricity poles and shop fronts. Blast walls are littered with posters of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. If women dare to take to the streets, they walk in a hurry, bent over and covered in black from head to toe.

On Sunday morning, the beginning of the Iraqi workweek, a woman in the admissions room of the psychological clinic at Imam Ali Hospital laments that in the night she was overtaken by sadness and headaches. She had been listening to the recording of a sermon about the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad who was slaughtered in 680, sparking the rift between Sunni and Shia. The woman is in her fifties, completely dressed in black, down to the black stockings below her sandals. The sermon reminds her of the death of her…