---
title: 'Al-Iraq newspaper, 7 January 1989: new-year illustration of Saddam Hussein with ''1989'' banner'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-al-iraq-new-year-1989-saddam-illustration/
description: 'Pen drawing from an Iraqi daily: Saddam Hussein smiling in tinted glasses above a soldier who carries a banner marked 1989, with a palm, rebuilt…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Leader-glorifying newspaper illustration from Ba'athist Iraq. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Al-Iraq newspaper, 7 January 1989: new-year illustration of Saddam Hussein with '1989' banner](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iraq-al-iraq-new-year-1989-saddam-illustration.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iraq-al-iraq-new-year-1989-saddam-illustration.jpg)

# Al-Iraq newspaper, 7 January 1989: new-year illustration of Saddam Hussein with '1989' banner

Pen drawing from an Iraqi daily: Saddam Hussein smiling in tinted glasses above a soldier who carries a banner marked 1989, with a palm, rebuilt apartment blocks, a laurel branch, a dove and a helmet below. The tell is the stack of victory, peace and reconstruction symbols arranged around the leader's portrait.

## Text on the object

Original (Arabic) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
1989 [Arabic-Indic digits ١٩٨٩ on the banner]
[curved lettering inside the ring at right, read as: كانون الثاني — partly legible]
[artist's signature, illegible] 1989
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
1989
[curved lettering inside the ring: 'January' (Kanun al-thani), partly legible]
[artist's signature, illegible] 1989
```

Read from a 500 px render; the only text is the banner year, the ring lettering and the signature. The ring lettering is read from the file name and partly from the image, so treat it as probable rather than certain. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Stage slogan at the MSZMP national conference, Budapest: "A párt vezetésével, \[de\]mokrácia és a reformok útján a szocializmusért!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hungary-mszmp-national-conference-slogan-1988/) [President Bush holds up a bag of crack in the Oval Office →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bush-crack-bag-address-1989/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)