Baha Araji

Who is Baha Araji?

Baha Araji is an Iraqi politician and a member of the Iraqi National Assembly. He is a spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance and a member of the Sadrist Movement which is led by Muqtada as-Sadr. He is also currently the head of the Ahrar bloc.

He was a member of the committee that drafted the Constitution of Iraq, where he opposed the proposal for Shia and Sunni Arab Regions.

During coalition negotiations in 2006 he strongly opposed the inclusion of Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National List in the government, saying they represented a red line drawn in blood. This was a reference to the crackdown that Allawi's Iraqi Interim Government launched against the Mahdi Army.

Personal life: Baha Araji was born in Kazimiyah, Baghdad, to a large working-class family. He was the 5th oldest child of 11 to Hussein Al-Araji, a taxi driver. Education was always important to him despite few opportunities handed to him, nonetheless he excelled in school and soon attended Baghdad University, where he gained a first class BA in law. On February 12, 1988, he married Azhar Al-Rubai, a fellow law graduate also from Baghdad, and soon after they had their firstborn Aeat followed by Alaa, Mohammed and Hadi. Araji currently lives in Baghdad but frequently makes trips to the UK to visit his family, including his young granddaughter Zainab.