Shafaq News- Baghdad

Children in two of Baghdad's oldest central neighborhoods had little more than hand-pushed swings in a crumbling public square to mark Eid al-Adha this year, as residents say decades of neglect have left Al-Kifah and Al-Fadhl without a single safe or modern recreational space.

Shafaq News cameras toured the two districts during the holiday, finding no parks, playgrounds, or entertainment facilities of any kind, only the aging fairground rides at Zubaida Square, which families said is the sole option available to them year after year.

"There is nowhere else you can take your children," Hussein al-Baghdadi, a resident of Al-Kifah, told Shafaq News. The square's hand-powered swings —a relic of another era— drew children not out of choice, but out of the absence of alternatives.

Al-Baghdadi did not spare the neighborhood's political representatives. Despite having MPs in parliament and officials in state institutions, he said, Al-Kifah remains without adequate services. "Chaos and disorder dominate."

"We are in 2026, and nothing has changed for us, despite the development and technology the countries around us and the world are witnessing."

Al-Kifah and Al-Fadhl are among Baghdad's most historically significant central districts, once drawing residents and visitors alike to their commercial streets and communal spaces.

Read more: Devotion and calm highlight Eid al-Adha across Iraq