It Started with an Idea

During the summer of 2021, a group of people got together and said “wouldn’t it be terrific to build a mudhif!” And…wouldn’t it be wonderful to tell about the ancient group, the Marsh Arabs whose compelling story stretching back through time deserves to be better known. How can we make that happen?

The Marsh Arab Project was born! Since that time, the Arab American Educational Foundation and Archaeology Now have been working hard to create events that tell about the history of a small group of people in Houston who are from the Hawizeh Marshes in Iraq. Our goal with this project is to travel back in time to discover more about the roots of an ancient culture and then bring it forward so that we are tracing the journey that these people have taken.

This project has been quite a saga that has taken much longer than we imagined when we first began. Through many twists and turns, our journey stretches from the marshes of the Gulf Coast of America to the marshes of Iraq.

We are proud to partner with Rice University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Nature Iraq, and the Arab American National Museum as well as generous supporters locally, nationally, and internationally to bring about this series of events.

These events are the Marsh Arabs story.