IRAQ: Sunni, Shia families swap homes in bid to remain safe

IRIN News

...a new phenomenon has emerged: Sunni and Shia families are swapping houses. Estate agents are providing lists of available properties, facilitating swap arrangements. "It is hard to leave the house you built and in which you spent your life raising your children, and which contains memories in every corner, but death is dreadful," said bearded Najim, a 52-year-old Shia pensioner and father of six boys. "When I heard about house exchanges, I immediately started looking for a displaced Sunni family from Baghdad to take my house in Dora. After weeks of inquiries, I found an estate agent with a list of uprooted Sunni families looking to swap properties," he said. "After a search of nearly a month, I was introduced to Najim at an estate agent’s office and we each agreed to take the other's house for six months, but we left our furniture in our houses because many people have been attacked by militants while moving household belongings," said Khayon, a 49-year-old father of three girls...

continua / continued