Iraqi city halts new liquor licenses to preserve 'public morals'

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Local authorities in the capital of Iraq's Anbar Province have ceased granting licenses for liquor shops in the city, claiming it aims to maintain "public morals" and prevent societal collapse.

On the main streets of Ramadi, the largest city in the Sunni-majority province, liquor stores have become a rarity in the past decade.

Recently, multiple would-be purveyors of alcohol submitted liquor license applications to the local municipal council. All were reported rejected.

The council said it had decided "not to grant any licenses for opening a shop [selling] alcoholic beverages and the competent authorities must implement the decision," read an official document signed on Wednesday by the authoritative body.

The move came, according to the text, "for the purpose of preserving public morals and decency in the city of Ramadi," asserting that it also sought to "avoid the daily clashes that drain an individual's energy, effort, thinking, and money."

The council said that the decision had been made at the request of city residents and prominent mosque leaders, adding that promoting "Islamic moral virtues… requires standing against any trend that leads to the collapse of society [due to] vice."

Despite the general ban on opening new liquor stores in the city, small shops will still be permitted to operate, at least for the time being.

In recent years, there have been periodic crackdowns on liquor shops in Baghdad, where they are ordered closed during Ramadan and the Shia holy month of Muharram. In 2016, Iraq's parliament passed a surprise law that made criminal the import, production, or selling of alcoholic beverages, but it was not implemented. 

As has been the experience of many countries with a ban on trading or the general import of alcoholic beverages, the policy usually fails to achieve its goals.

Sometimes, as observed in Iran, the public has turned to produce and consume their own spirits as a counter-measure to the country's import bans. Due to the lack of a regulatory body or legal liability for those involved in the production or trade, the bootleg alcoholic drinks at times contain dangerous impurities including the highly poisonous methanol instead of the less serious ethanol.

Cases of fatal poisonings are commonplace in Iraq with one report in November suggesting at least 25 had died in the month due to its consumption. 

Editing by John J. Catherine