Well, I’m pretty keen on my own company, so that’s never really a problem when there’s a screen, book or podcast. What people often really mean, the thirsty little subtext, is: “Iraq is a Muslim majority country, and I know the demon drink is banned in countries to the south and east, can you get on the sauce?”
Well, yes, of course you can. In some of the more conservative Muslim areas it might take a while to track down an offie - especially to the south where alcohol suppliers have been the subject of recent bombings - and the Baghdad parliament recently tried to ban booze altogether. The autonomous government up here in Erbil quickly denied they’d follow such nonsense should it have passed into law.
Some of the shops are impressively stocked with fancy schmanzy single malts, the occasional dark beer in amongst the lagers and wines from across the world. All a bit easier on the pocket as well, this being a largely tax free country.
Locally, Farida beer continues to be brewed in Baghdad. It’s hit and miss, none of the multinational consistency one gets from Heineken. It can also be hard to find, but we stumbled across some on a road trip the other week, and enjoyed a road soda or two before we arrived at a wedding.
Still very popular is arak - ouzo to you and me, and while I don’t truck with the piss, many here swear by it. It used to be distilled in Christian towns like Bartella, only recently retaken from the thunderc**ts. There is talk of operations getting going again.
God knows, those who partake need a drink.