For the last 10 days, hundreds of Iraqi Shia have come to these mass graves just outside Baghdad to look for their missing in these bags.
WOMAN: (Translation): My son. My darling son, Ali. I'm looking for you in these bags, my son. My son Ali. What did you ever do, my son? Where can I find you, my son? Where can I find my son? Where can I find him? Where can I find you, my beloved son Ali? In these bags, my son?
After the failed Shia uprising in 1991, Saddam Hussein took his revenge. He slaughtered about a 100,000 Shia and dumped their bodies in secret locations like this. Most were randomly pulled from their houses, or taken from the streets never to be seen again by their families. The aim was to terrorise. Until now, their whereabouts have never been known.
WOMAN: (Translation): They took him from home. I swear they're innocent. They didn't do anything. They were the only two sons. Our father died from grief. Oh, my brothers! Father died at their wake. Brother.
The reality is these bags of human remains will not provide the closure these people are desperately seeking. The majority of the bodies cannot be identified. This man thinks he's found his brother's remains because he recognises this jumper.
MAN: (Translation): Take your time. You said it had stripes? Be careful. This one has none.
Most will continue searching in vain. There are 3,000 bodies here at Mahawil and nearby another two sites have been discovered.
MAN: (Translation): We looked everywhere but found nothing. We looked all around here for 10 or 15 days. They were 13 people. Eight houses were burnt.
Asam Kassim is probably the only survivor from these killing fields. In 1991, he was brought here accused of taking part in the Shia uprising. He was lined up with five of his brothers and shot. Remarkably, he survived and managed to drag himself from the freshly dug graves.
ASAM KASSIM: (Translation): I had to climb over corpses. I left my brothers there. I couldn't get them. I was shot in both arms and had to pull on dry reeds. Through water, mud and corpses. I managed to get out. The reeds were breaking. There was 53 of us in the first batch. They were executing us. I had to walk on corpses and the mud was up to here. The reeds were dry and breaking as I grabbed them.
But this was not the end of Asam's ordeal, the regime came looking for him and when his parents would not give him up, they were shot too. Not only did Saddam try to eradicate the Shia, he also tried to kill off their identity by outlawing their rituals and assassinating their leaders.
Friday prayers at Kufa Mosque just outside the city of Najaf is the biggest and first, Shia mosque ever built. With Saddam gone, the Shia are determined not to be oppressed again and the mosque has become the centre of power once more.
CROWD: (Translation): Yes yes to Sadr! Yes, yes to Sadr.
Giving the sermon is Muqtada Sadr. Within the last month this 30-year-old cleric has emerged into the open as the likely leader of Iraq's 12 million Shia. He comes from one of the most revered Shia families in Iraq. After Saddam's agents assassinated his father and two brothers in 1999, Muqtada started an underground movement to resist the dictator. Sadr knows the future of Iraq is in the hands of the Shia and he tells them they're now living under Islamic law.
MUQTADA AL-SADR, SHIA CLERIC: (Translation): With God's help and grace, an Islamic court was established by holy Najaf to solve all our problems and answer any questions. So, raise your voices in prayer for Mohammad and His family.
Sadr says he wants the Americans and their ideal of a secular democracy out. His hardline position has won him many supporters. Sadr wants all of Iraq, regardless of ethnicity or religion, to be an Islamic state.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: (Translation): The government will be for all Iraq, from north to south. It will be united, not divided. I don't think the Sunnis or anyone else will reject this Shiite government. Even non-Muslims will be subject to Islamic law, not just Muslims. Muslims will accept it fully. There's no harm in it for them. You're asking about non-Muslims. Even prayer is a duty for non-Muslims.
The city of Najaf, where Sadr is based, is the centre of the Shia world. The Howza, the supreme religious authority, resides here. For more than 1,000 years, it's issued orders to the world's 170 million Shia. The founding father of the Shia, Imam Ali, is also buried here. His shrine is the most important religious site for the Shia.
Sadr and his clerics are firmly in control of Najaf. Unlike Baghdad, this city is a model of civic calm. Guns are not seen on the streets and the people were ordered back to work weeks ago. The Americans have no presence here and that's the way Sadr likes it.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: (Translation): Neither party wants to meet the other. So the question about cooperation is irrelevant. America doesn't want this howza and we don't want them or need them so far.
This is effectively the government in Najaf - a civil administration being run by Sadr and his young advisers. In one room, religious tax is being collected, in another Sharia law is issued and downstairs welfare payments are given out to the poor and the sick.
SADR INFORMATION OFFICER: (Translation): It's for all sections of the community and all levels of society. Doctors come here, engineers, the poor, the illiterate, students, the educated. All sections of society come to this place. To sort out a disagreement, seek a point of view, over a theological issue, or a legal issue, and so on. We discuss all aspects of life.
Saddam successfully suppressed the Howza but now all its functions are undergoing a rapid revival. About 3,000 students have come back to its lifeblood - the seminaries. Under Saddam, Qassim Yassery, like most, was not allowed here, so he studied in secret for 14 years.
QASSIM YASSERY, STUDENT: (Translation): As soon as the danger was gone, people's generosity exploded. Everyone is trying to emulate the Prophet Muhammad. You'll see this a lot and godly deeds always grow. And God will spread His light. There may be some hardship but it could also bring benefit. Hardship pushes people towards progress, like a plane pushing against the air's resistance until it flies up and away.
But within the Howza, a power struggle is emerging between the younger and radical Muqtada Sadr and the traditional Grand Ayatollah of Najaf, Sayyed Sistani. This is the lane outside Sistani's house. Many people have walked miles to get here and now hope to get a glimpse of the man.
MAN: (Translation): He's special because he's a man of God. He's fair. He's never unjust and he's fair and straight before God, the Prophet, Ali, Hassan, Hussein.
SECOND MAN, (Translation):He's the head of the theological howza and he's our leader and counsel. We come to visit him, to benefit from him. He teaches and guides us away from theft, looting, since sins, everything.
They're hoping to meet with Sistani, but it's like asking for an audience with the Pope.
THIRD MAN, (Translation):I'd like to see him if I could.
Either him or his aide. Either him or his aide. I have financial difficulties. I have only daughters.
For the lucky few to get inside, they probably won't see Sistani. Only his disciples offer advice. Sistani hasn't left his house in five years. Saddam kept him under house arrest but since the regime's demise, the 80-year-old hasn't ventured out. Sadr has criticised Sistani for not being active enough, but Sistani's view is that clerics should only be spiritual leaders. His spokesperson Mohammed Moshen is unwilling to discuss anything to do with politics.
MOHAMMED MOSHEN, SISTANIS SPOKESMAN, (Translation): Imam Sistani, may God keep him has no interest in politics. He's a jurist, a man of theology and counsel. He has no interest in politics. His interests are in reform. The reform of morals and setting the soul straight. He has no political interests.
A more serious threat to Sadr's power is Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr Hakim. Today he's returning from 23 years in exile in Iran. When Hakim arrives, his car is mobbed by people who want to welcome him back.
CROWD, (Translation): With our soul and blood we defend you, O Hakim!
Hakim has prayed for this day - to return to his birthplace and to cast his eyes once more on the holy shrine of Imam Ali.
CROWD, (Translation): With our soul and blood we defend you, O Hakim!
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: (Translation): Dear brothers and sisters, fellow believers, beloved of my heart, I love you so much I want to embrace you, with my arms and heart, and kiss your hands. I say to you dear brothers, we must preserve the howza and its unity and we must preserve our religious rituals.
Today is also powerful because the Shia can grieve together. Under Saddam, they couldn't. For every year Hakim spent in exile, Saddam killed two of his relatives in Iraq.
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: (Translation): The regime has destroyed Iraq. The regime has brutally destroyed Iraq. We need to expend every effort and work as one in order to achieve security for Iraq and the Iraqis and reconstruction for Iraq and the Iraqis. We will work as one with you and all of us say "Yes, yes to reconstruction!"
The return of Hakim means the restoration of the Howza is almost complete. But it also means the real battle for control of the Shia can start.
The next day, Hakim holds his first press conference in Iraq. And despite strong anti-American statements while in exile, Hakim presents himself as a moderate to the world's media. Hakim has taken a seat on the American-sponsored six-man leadership council that will form an interim Iraqi government. It's believed the only reason why the Americans allowed Hakim to return is to undercut Sadr's growing influence, but Hakim is struggling to blend theocracy with democracy.
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: (Translation); We have met with Iraqi opposition and agreed on establishing democratic rule that respects the Islamic religion, its values and its law. This rule is not intrinsically Islamic but neither is it secular, because secular rule, rather than respecting religion, respects the individual. We believe that the answer to the actual problem that exists now between Muslims is to have democratic rule that respects the Islamic religion along with the values and law.
Many see Hakim as an outsider. Sadr thinks Hakim is walking a dangerous line dealing with the Americans. Muqtada Sadr has broken a long-standing taboo about Shia criticising Shia and speaks out against Hakim.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: What's his position? He has none. He was a student of Muhammad Baqir Sadr. He's not even a jurist, and he left before Sadr was martyred. He has no place at all. He's a student, not a jurist. At least, when he left, he wasn't a jurist. We didn't take his place or even want it. We're bigger than that.
And for now, Hakim won't respond publicly to Sadr's criticism.
TRANSLATOR, (Translation): A spokesman for Muqtada Sadr said you have no role to play as you were living in luxury in Iran. What's your comment?
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: I have no comment.
If America is to succeed in post-war Iraq, they will need to work with the Shia, the majority in Iraq, but in Najaf, as in many other cities, the Americans are not welcome. On the outskirts of town, the Americans have just installed their own interim governor of the holy city. This has outraged Shia leaders and has confirmed to them that America cannot be trusted. The governor Abdel Munem is an outsider from Basra, not a religious man and was a former colonel in the Iraqi army.
GOVERNOR ABDEL MUNEM: (Translation): I was never one of Saddam's officers but rather an officer in the Iraqi army. This is the first. An officer in the army is a government employee. All the government departments you see now were part of the state of Iraq under that regime. I don't think it's a crime or a sin.
The Americans were not available for comment, but Governor Munem says he was given the job because for the last couple of years he has worked secretly with the Americans.
GOVERNOR ABDEL MUNEM: (Translation): We provided information on the location of weapons. Missiles, air bases and chemical weapons. We provided this information to the organisation's leadership and it definitely reached the friendly coalition forces.
America has said it will not tolerate an Islamic state. But with the American Administration faltering, much of Iraq is already being run by the clerics. Across Iraq, the celebrations of the Prophet Mohammad's birthday quickly become a political protest.
CROWD, (Translation): No, no to Israel! No, no to America. Yes, yes to the howza!
Najaf, Karbala, Kut, Nasiriyah and parts of Basra are all under Shia control. These are Sadr's men, and now they are deepening and strengthening their hold in a key part of Baghdad - Sadr City, where half of Baghdad's population lives. The worry for the US Administration is that it has no control here. Muqtada Sadr has rejected American attempts to involve him in the next conference to finalise a transitional government.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: (Translation): I'm having nothing to do with this conference and I won't be attending. If there's to be a conference we'll hold it, not them.
Muqtada Sadr's vision is becoming a reality in this part of the city named in honour of his family. A cleanup of the city has just been ordered and now food and water supplies, social and health services, and schools are all being managed by the clerics. Sadr has issued fatwas or Islamic rulings banning alcohol, cinema and Western music. Strict dress regulations have been enforced on all regardless of religion. Sheikh Amir Khinyab is the new manager of the Chuwada hospital, the biggest in Sadr City. He says all who enter have to follow the right path.
SHEIKH AMIR KHINYAB: (Translation): All the religions believe in heaven and hellfire. Whoever obeys God in life is rewarded with heaven. And whoever goes astray steals, for example, or drinks alcohol is rewarded with hellfire, in all eternity. Instances of sinning, like singing, for example, it numbs the mind, it corrupts it. Alcohol, we well. Right? Islam wants man to be straight.
This spread of religious rule is also troubling for secular Iraqis. They fear one dictatorship will be replaced by another. Dr Rasha Ta'i started working at the hospital three months before the fall of Saddam. She's thankful that local clerics stopped the looting and have provided security. But she doesn't agree with the dress codes imposed by her new boss.
DOCTOR RASHA TAI: (Translation): He said "We'd prefer you to wear the hijab because the howza will run the hospital and we feel responsible for this hospital. We'd like things to be nice." As if he was living a dream. As if he wanted a private state in this hospital. He was armed, so I got scared. Truly, even though he was defending the hospital. This isn't how I normally dress. But it's better. I feel more at ease. I'll see later. I might wear it or take it off.
SHEIKH AMIR KHINYAB: (Translation): Women are a trap. Women are a trap if they show their beauty. Showing their body or body shape makes men look at them, and that's forbidden.
Removing Saddam Hussein has handed power to the Shia clerics. It's a scenario America didn't anticipate and wanted to avoid. The coming months will see an inevitable clash between America's plan for a secular democracy and Shia fundamentalism.
REPORTER: MATTHEW CARNEY
EDITOR: BEN DEACON
WOMAN: (Translation): My son. My darling son, Ali. I'm looking for you in these bags, my son. My son Ali. What did you ever do, my son? Where can I find you, my son? Where can I find my son? Where can I find him? Where can I find you, my beloved son Ali? In these bags, my son?
After the failed Shia uprising in 1991, Saddam Hussein took his revenge. He slaughtered about a 100,000 Shia and dumped their bodies in secret locations like this. Most were randomly pulled from their houses, or taken from the streets never to be seen again by their families. The aim was to terrorise. Until now, their whereabouts have never been known.
WOMAN: (Translation): They took him from home. I swear they're innocent. They didn't do anything. They were the only two sons. Our father died from grief. Oh, my brothers! Father died at their wake. Brother.
The reality is these bags of human remains will not provide the closure these people are desperately seeking. The majority of the bodies cannot be identified. This man thinks he's found his brother's remains because he recognises this jumper.
MAN: (Translation): Take your time. You said it had stripes? Be careful. This one has none.
Most will continue searching in vain. There are 3,000 bodies here at Mahawil and nearby another two sites have been discovered.
MAN: (Translation): We looked everywhere but found nothing. We looked all around here for 10 or 15 days. They were 13 people. Eight houses were burnt.
Asam Kassim is probably the only survivor from these killing fields. In 1991, he was brought here accused of taking part in the Shia uprising. He was lined up with five of his brothers and shot. Remarkably, he survived and managed to drag himself from the freshly dug graves.
ASAM KASSIM: (Translation): I had to climb over corpses. I left my brothers there. I couldn't get them. I was shot in both arms and had to pull on dry reeds. Through water, mud and corpses. I managed to get out. The reeds were breaking. There was 53 of us in the first batch. They were executing us. I had to walk on corpses and the mud was up to here. The reeds were dry and breaking as I grabbed them.
But this was not the end of Asam's ordeal, the regime came looking for him and when his parents would not give him up, they were shot too. Not only did Saddam try to eradicate the Shia, he also tried to kill off their identity by outlawing their rituals and assassinating their leaders.
Friday prayers at Kufa Mosque just outside the city of Najaf is the biggest and first, Shia mosque ever built. With Saddam gone, the Shia are determined not to be oppressed again and the mosque has become the centre of power once more.
CROWD: (Translation): Yes yes to Sadr! Yes, yes to Sadr.
Giving the sermon is Muqtada Sadr. Within the last month this 30-year-old cleric has emerged into the open as the likely leader of Iraq's 12 million Shia. He comes from one of the most revered Shia families in Iraq. After Saddam's agents assassinated his father and two brothers in 1999, Muqtada started an underground movement to resist the dictator. Sadr knows the future of Iraq is in the hands of the Shia and he tells them they're now living under Islamic law.
MUQTADA AL-SADR, SHIA CLERIC: (Translation): With God's help and grace, an Islamic court was established by holy Najaf to solve all our problems and answer any questions. So, raise your voices in prayer for Mohammad and His family.
Sadr says he wants the Americans and their ideal of a secular democracy out. His hardline position has won him many supporters. Sadr wants all of Iraq, regardless of ethnicity or religion, to be an Islamic state.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: (Translation): The government will be for all Iraq, from north to south. It will be united, not divided. I don't think the Sunnis or anyone else will reject this Shiite government. Even non-Muslims will be subject to Islamic law, not just Muslims. Muslims will accept it fully. There's no harm in it for them. You're asking about non-Muslims. Even prayer is a duty for non-Muslims.
The city of Najaf, where Sadr is based, is the centre of the Shia world. The Howza, the supreme religious authority, resides here. For more than 1,000 years, it's issued orders to the world's 170 million Shia. The founding father of the Shia, Imam Ali, is also buried here. His shrine is the most important religious site for the Shia.
Sadr and his clerics are firmly in control of Najaf. Unlike Baghdad, this city is a model of civic calm. Guns are not seen on the streets and the people were ordered back to work weeks ago. The Americans have no presence here and that's the way Sadr likes it.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: (Translation): Neither party wants to meet the other. So the question about cooperation is irrelevant. America doesn't want this howza and we don't want them or need them so far.
This is effectively the government in Najaf - a civil administration being run by Sadr and his young advisers. In one room, religious tax is being collected, in another Sharia law is issued and downstairs welfare payments are given out to the poor and the sick.
SADR INFORMATION OFFICER: (Translation): It's for all sections of the community and all levels of society. Doctors come here, engineers, the poor, the illiterate, students, the educated. All sections of society come to this place. To sort out a disagreement, seek a point of view, over a theological issue, or a legal issue, and so on. We discuss all aspects of life.
Saddam successfully suppressed the Howza but now all its functions are undergoing a rapid revival. About 3,000 students have come back to its lifeblood - the seminaries. Under Saddam, Qassim Yassery, like most, was not allowed here, so he studied in secret for 14 years.
QASSIM YASSERY, STUDENT: (Translation): As soon as the danger was gone, people's generosity exploded. Everyone is trying to emulate the Prophet Muhammad. You'll see this a lot and godly deeds always grow. And God will spread His light. There may be some hardship but it could also bring benefit. Hardship pushes people towards progress, like a plane pushing against the air's resistance until it flies up and away.
But within the Howza, a power struggle is emerging between the younger and radical Muqtada Sadr and the traditional Grand Ayatollah of Najaf, Sayyed Sistani. This is the lane outside Sistani's house. Many people have walked miles to get here and now hope to get a glimpse of the man.
MAN: (Translation): He's special because he's a man of God. He's fair. He's never unjust and he's fair and straight before God, the Prophet, Ali, Hassan, Hussein.
SECOND MAN, (Translation):He's the head of the theological howza and he's our leader and counsel. We come to visit him, to benefit from him. He teaches and guides us away from theft, looting, since sins, everything.
They're hoping to meet with Sistani, but it's like asking for an audience with the Pope.
THIRD MAN, (Translation):I'd like to see him if I could.
Either him or his aide. Either him or his aide. I have financial difficulties. I have only daughters.
For the lucky few to get inside, they probably won't see Sistani. Only his disciples offer advice. Sistani hasn't left his house in five years. Saddam kept him under house arrest but since the regime's demise, the 80-year-old hasn't ventured out. Sadr has criticised Sistani for not being active enough, but Sistani's view is that clerics should only be spiritual leaders. His spokesperson Mohammed Moshen is unwilling to discuss anything to do with politics.
MOHAMMED MOSHEN, SISTANIS SPOKESMAN, (Translation): Imam Sistani, may God keep him has no interest in politics. He's a jurist, a man of theology and counsel. He has no interest in politics. His interests are in reform. The reform of morals and setting the soul straight. He has no political interests.
A more serious threat to Sadr's power is Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr Hakim. Today he's returning from 23 years in exile in Iran. When Hakim arrives, his car is mobbed by people who want to welcome him back.
CROWD, (Translation): With our soul and blood we defend you, O Hakim!
Hakim has prayed for this day - to return to his birthplace and to cast his eyes once more on the holy shrine of Imam Ali.
CROWD, (Translation): With our soul and blood we defend you, O Hakim!
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: (Translation): Dear brothers and sisters, fellow believers, beloved of my heart, I love you so much I want to embrace you, with my arms and heart, and kiss your hands. I say to you dear brothers, we must preserve the howza and its unity and we must preserve our religious rituals.
Today is also powerful because the Shia can grieve together. Under Saddam, they couldn't. For every year Hakim spent in exile, Saddam killed two of his relatives in Iraq.
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: (Translation): The regime has destroyed Iraq. The regime has brutally destroyed Iraq. We need to expend every effort and work as one in order to achieve security for Iraq and the Iraqis and reconstruction for Iraq and the Iraqis. We will work as one with you and all of us say "Yes, yes to reconstruction!"
The return of Hakim means the restoration of the Howza is almost complete. But it also means the real battle for control of the Shia can start.
The next day, Hakim holds his first press conference in Iraq. And despite strong anti-American statements while in exile, Hakim presents himself as a moderate to the world's media. Hakim has taken a seat on the American-sponsored six-man leadership council that will form an interim Iraqi government. It's believed the only reason why the Americans allowed Hakim to return is to undercut Sadr's growing influence, but Hakim is struggling to blend theocracy with democracy.
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: (Translation); We have met with Iraqi opposition and agreed on establishing democratic rule that respects the Islamic religion, its values and its law. This rule is not intrinsically Islamic but neither is it secular, because secular rule, rather than respecting religion, respects the individual. We believe that the answer to the actual problem that exists now between Muslims is to have democratic rule that respects the Islamic religion along with the values and law.
Many see Hakim as an outsider. Sadr thinks Hakim is walking a dangerous line dealing with the Americans. Muqtada Sadr has broken a long-standing taboo about Shia criticising Shia and speaks out against Hakim.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: What's his position? He has none. He was a student of Muhammad Baqir Sadr. He's not even a jurist, and he left before Sadr was martyred. He has no place at all. He's a student, not a jurist. At least, when he left, he wasn't a jurist. We didn't take his place or even want it. We're bigger than that.
And for now, Hakim won't respond publicly to Sadr's criticism.
TRANSLATOR, (Translation): A spokesman for Muqtada Sadr said you have no role to play as you were living in luxury in Iran. What's your comment?
AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD BAKR HAKIM: I have no comment.
If America is to succeed in post-war Iraq, they will need to work with the Shia, the majority in Iraq, but in Najaf, as in many other cities, the Americans are not welcome. On the outskirts of town, the Americans have just installed their own interim governor of the holy city. This has outraged Shia leaders and has confirmed to them that America cannot be trusted. The governor Abdel Munem is an outsider from Basra, not a religious man and was a former colonel in the Iraqi army.
GOVERNOR ABDEL MUNEM: (Translation): I was never one of Saddam's officers but rather an officer in the Iraqi army. This is the first. An officer in the army is a government employee. All the government departments you see now were part of the state of Iraq under that regime. I don't think it's a crime or a sin.
The Americans were not available for comment, but Governor Munem says he was given the job because for the last couple of years he has worked secretly with the Americans.
GOVERNOR ABDEL MUNEM: (Translation): We provided information on the location of weapons. Missiles, air bases and chemical weapons. We provided this information to the organisation's leadership and it definitely reached the friendly coalition forces.
America has said it will not tolerate an Islamic state. But with the American Administration faltering, much of Iraq is already being run by the clerics. Across Iraq, the celebrations of the Prophet Mohammad's birthday quickly become a political protest.
CROWD, (Translation): No, no to Israel! No, no to America. Yes, yes to the howza!
Najaf, Karbala, Kut, Nasiriyah and parts of Basra are all under Shia control. These are Sadr's men, and now they are deepening and strengthening their hold in a key part of Baghdad - Sadr City, where half of Baghdad's population lives. The worry for the US Administration is that it has no control here. Muqtada Sadr has rejected American attempts to involve him in the next conference to finalise a transitional government.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: (Translation): I'm having nothing to do with this conference and I won't be attending. If there's to be a conference we'll hold it, not them.
Muqtada Sadr's vision is becoming a reality in this part of the city named in honour of his family. A cleanup of the city has just been ordered and now food and water supplies, social and health services, and schools are all being managed by the clerics. Sadr has issued fatwas or Islamic rulings banning alcohol, cinema and Western music. Strict dress regulations have been enforced on all regardless of religion. Sheikh Amir Khinyab is the new manager of the Chuwada hospital, the biggest in Sadr City. He says all who enter have to follow the right path.
SHEIKH AMIR KHINYAB: (Translation): All the religions believe in heaven and hellfire. Whoever obeys God in life is rewarded with heaven. And whoever goes astray steals, for example, or drinks alcohol is rewarded with hellfire, in all eternity. Instances of sinning, like singing, for example, it numbs the mind, it corrupts it. Alcohol, we well. Right? Islam wants man to be straight.
This spread of religious rule is also troubling for secular Iraqis. They fear one dictatorship will be replaced by another. Dr Rasha Ta'i started working at the hospital three months before the fall of Saddam. She's thankful that local clerics stopped the looting and have provided security. But she doesn't agree with the dress codes imposed by her new boss.
DOCTOR RASHA TAI: (Translation): He said "We'd prefer you to wear the hijab because the howza will run the hospital and we feel responsible for this hospital. We'd like things to be nice." As if he was living a dream. As if he wanted a private state in this hospital. He was armed, so I got scared. Truly, even though he was defending the hospital. This isn't how I normally dress. But it's better. I feel more at ease. I'll see later. I might wear it or take it off.
SHEIKH AMIR KHINYAB: (Translation): Women are a trap. Women are a trap if they show their beauty. Showing their body or body shape makes men look at them, and that's forbidden.
Removing Saddam Hussein has handed power to the Shia clerics. It's a scenario America didn't anticipate and wanted to avoid. The coming months will see an inevitable clash between America's plan for a secular democracy and Shia fundamentalism.
REPORTER: MATTHEW CARNEY
EDITOR: BEN DEACON