Satellite dishes reconnect post-Daesh Mosul to world
mosul — Satellite dishes have been sprouting on the rooftops of east Mosul since it was retaken from the Daesh group, who punished anyone caught with a dish with the lash.
“Now we know what is happening in the world,” Mohammad Turki says as he installs one in the Al Qahira district.
Since Iraqi forces ousted Daesh from the half of Mosul that lies east of the Tigris river, residents have rushed to buy dishes that the militants banned as they sought to isolate their self-declared “caliphate” from the outside world.
“Today there’s huge demand,” says Turki, who installs up to five dishes a day. “People in Mosul were cut off from the world. We didn’t know what was happening around us.” Today, the dishes have mushroomed on rooftops across the city’s east and residents have access to news from beyond Mosul once again.
Sarmad Raad, 26, of then Shaqaq Al Khadra district, says residents took significant risks to stay in touch with the outside world, installing dishes on balconies and hiding them behind canvas screens. “If they caught you, you’d get lashes,” he said. Main roads in Mosul are still lined with piles of rusting dishes confiscated by the militants.
Alaa, a dish salesman, says the militants forced antenna shops to close the same way they banned anyone from carrying a mobile phone.
“They would search them to make sure they weren’t selling satellite dishes. They’d monitor people and whip or imprison them,” he says. Daesh fighters also raided and set fire to the headquarters of local television station Al Mawsleya.
Residents say they are keen to watch the news and to track developments in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces are still battling to oust Daesh from its last major urban stronghold in Iraq. —