Anfal and Modernity: A Paradoxical Study of Modernity

This paper attempts to enter the fields of history, sociology and political sciences and finds a link between their theoretical and practical bases. Therefore, the main concern in this paper is to find the relationship between Anfal (a historical and socio-political event) and modernism (a political-philosophical concept). It attempts to find out if Anfal or the genocide of the Iraqi Kurds has any relationship with modernism and if it can be considered as a by-product of modernism. By explaining the concept of modernism and highlighting the paradoxes in it, this paper examines Anfal vs-a-vis these paradoxes. To answer research questions of the theory of modernism theory and its critical attitude one has to depend on data analysis and use of the descriptive analytical method. The hypothesis in this study is that Anfal is the product of modernism. Findings of the study show that Anfal is the product of the paradoxes in modernism and modernism while encountering Anfal has shown its dark side. Fatalism is an aspect which has developed as a result of instrumental rationality which in itself is an outcome of modernism.The instrumental rationality has brought with itbureaucracy, army and technology as a result of which government fell in the hands of the Baath Partywhich was the direct product of Anfal.