ERBIL—Across Iraq, travelers notice the ubiquity of blue amulets hung strategically from rearview mirrors and doorways. Fashioned in the shape of an asymmetrical blue eye with a black dot in its center for a pupil, these homely pendants of glass, according to superstition, protect against what is almost universally known as the evil eye, a malicious gaze that turns beauty to ugliness, health to disease. The application of these amulets knows no socio-economic boundary. Since first coming to Iraq in the summer of 2008, shortly after graduating from Emory University, I’ve seen pebble-sized blue eyes in taxis and gargantuan ones affixed to the entrances of ministers’ mansions.
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