Land of the Free

JOURNALISTS with the now-toxic UK passport have received a ‘Papal Dispensation’ to visit Iraq, after a several months-long ban on UK citizens was temporary lifted. It was quite literally a Papal Dispensation because His Holiness Pope Francis, against all international advice, decided to pursue a long-planned visit to Iraq. Oft-forgotten, Iraq has an admittedly ever-diminishing Christian community which is said to be one of the oldest in the world.

So, here I am, finally back in Iraq. And, for the duration of my visa, here I shall stay! I never imagined I would seek freedom of life and movement in the Middle East, but we are living in strange times. Restaurants, cafes and shops are all open, with a modest 9 pm nightly curfew and lockdown weekends the extent of current restrictions, and it’s great to feel as though one is actually living rather than merely existing.

Now the Pope has departed, it seems like a fine time to check out the Jaguar Land Rover salesroom here in Baghdad. Yes, along with its little-known Christian community, Iraq also boasts such a showroom – in fact four of them. But I can’t imagine that sales are brilliant, as one doesn’t see all that many Land Rovers on the streets of Baghdad, either new or old.

I order a ‘Careem’ (a Middle East-based Uber subsidiary) and try to explain to the driver in my broken Arabic that our destination is the Jaguar Land Rover business in Baghdad’s Mansour district. The words Land Rover don’t seem very comprehensible but, when we’ve eventually established the vehicle make, he shakes his head and says: “No, not in Mansour.” As a resident of that district, he knows only of Toyota and Dodge dealerships.

Google provides a phone number, via which we establish its exact location. We get navigated to a swish, if compact, showroom on a busy commercial street. I receive a warm welcome from a range of staff (including a rather glamorous lady at reception) before being deposited into the capable hands of the company’s eloquent and poetic PR manager, Sabah.

I wasn’t far wrong with the Land Rover sales here – it’s a high-end vehicle, with the associated price tag. Ergo, it is the domain of the wealthy. Prices are from around $50,000 upwards, comparable to the UK market but with a few extra grand on top to cover shipping complexities and significant import costs.

“The market share is slight here because it’s a premium brand, like Aston Martin or Rolls-royce, and we are proud to reflect genuine British craftsmanship that really brings value, not just to customers but also to the market itself,” Sabah explains. A five-year warranty, including roadside assistance and regular services, all comes as standard, something which is apparently unusual here.

For Sardar Trading Agencies – Jaguar Land Rover’s official representative, importer and distributor in Iraq – reestablishing Land Rovers here has been a challenge, Sabah says. There were some negative associations to overcome as, during the Iran-iraq war of the 1980s, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s preferred vehicle for visiting frontlines was apparently a Range Rover. And, in the same war, the Defender, with mounted weaponry, was part of the Iraqi Special Forces’ arsenal.

And then came the sanctions. “Under the embargo, imports were stopped and the Land Rover brand, like other brands, suffered from a shortage of spare parts,” said Sabah. Having completely vanished from the market, “reviving the brand” a few decades later has been, he says, a long but rewarding journey.

After ten years of operations Land Rover Iraq are proud to boast over 4000 satisfied customers. And, in the last quarter, despite the ongoing businessbashing annoyance of Covid-19, the Baghdad branch has outsold its other three showrooms in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Walking me around the compact showroom, which displays just some of the range available, due to space restrictions, Sabah pauses beside a midnight blue Range Rover Sport, with a striking blood red interior. “Ah, this is a breathtaking interior,” he muses: “I really need a dictionary to express how I feel when I see our vehicles.”

The comprehensive sales records they keep means Jaguar Land Rover also offer a new type of experience to the Iraqi car market, Sabah says. On one occasion, such records even managed to solve an ownership dispute. The company received a letter from a court, asking for help in settling a dispute between two men who both claimed to be the owner of a Range Rover. “We checked and discovered that someone had forged the VIN on the chassis, by cutting out the original and replacing it, to deceive the police,” explained Sabah. “Our computer system was able to judge between the real owner and the fake owner. It was a stolen vehicle but the original owner got it back, which is something we are very proud of.”

Land Rover thefts are a worldwide problem but, of course, you’ll be wondering whether the Land Rover showroom and its luxury vehicles are really safe in Baghdad, considering the city’s long-term global reputation as both dangerous and war-torn. And the simple answer is yes. Despite opening the Baghdad branch in mid-2015 – when ISIS still controlled swathes of the country – Land Rover Iraq has not had any major security-related issues.

The Pope was safe in Iraq and so, it seems, are Jaguar Land Rover. And, although the price tags remain beyond the reach of most Iraqis, Jaguar Land Rover, which recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary (having opened its first branch in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2010), is here to stay.

“I never imagined I would seek freedom of life and movement in the Middle East, but we are living in strange times”

Thom Westcott is a British freelance journalist who has written for the Times and Guardian, and now mostly spends her time reporting from Libya.