Adel Abdul Mahdi’s task will not be easy. A lot is at stake for the country’s stability and development, and he might not be as free to make decisions as he would have hoped.

Women in Iraq have been institutional victims of sectarian religious conflicts, Islamic law, cultural traditions and even the Iraqi constitution. To end this growing and dangerous trend, the Iraqi government must implement serious measures against the systematic targeting of well-known or famous women and beauty centers in the name of defending the “honor” of a country, city, tribe, or family. Iraq’s feminists need to wake up because sympathy is not enoughز

A committee representing the protesters laid out a list of demands at a press conference in Basra on 16 July, according to the Kurdish news site Rudaw. These included: developing a plan for solving water and electricity shortages with a clear timetable; discharging foreign workers and hiring Basra residents in the oilfields; improving health and education services; firing many of the local directors responsible for security and services in Basra; and a number of terms related to transparency about and allocation of petrodollars.

With a 6 June vote to amend the election law, parliament ousted the electoral commission and replaced it with a panel of judges tasked with overseeing a manual recount of the 11 million ballots cast. Al-Abadi endorsed the recount and alleged problems with electronic vote counting devices that had been used for the first time in the country. Al-Sadr’s camp, meanwhile, painted the recount as a delaying tactic to undermine al-Sadr’s victory and prevent the formation of the new government.

Al-Sadr’s surprise election win could be seen as a vote for Iraqi independence from foreign powers – meaning from Iran as well as the US. It might also give a boost to Iran’s regional rival, Saudi Arabia, which has been trying to strengthen its ties with Iraq.

Since the defeat of IS, steps have to be taken to rebuild, physically and morally, a nation that has once again been shattered. These elections could be another of those steps, but all the signs indicate that they will do little more than maintain the status quo, with the real issues facing Iraqis once again going unaddressed.

The referendum sent shock waves around the world, inspiring Kurds to the possibility of an independent state and alarming governments across the region. But if Erbil went ahead with the vote from a position of strength, the KRG is now in its worst state for years, wracked by internal dissent and with old political wounds freshly opened.