There do not seem to be many useful comparisons of projections for GIS data use in Iraq (less for Afghanistan)

I thought I would prepare a series of images to enable easy comparison of Cartographic Projections for Iraq.

UTM 38N is commonly used for Iraq maps, and Mercator World seems to be a useful option also, especially if you are interested in the Kurdistan area as it appears larger, so when choosing consider the politics of your audience and most importantly who's paying for the map and what will it be used for. 

WGS84 makes a good datum for your database but doesn't make for a good cartographic map. Remember that your Datum is the format that your data is stored in only, and the projection changes all the time depending on the type of map and the purpose of the resulting graphic.

I've included Nahrwan 1934 Iraq, and FD Iraq 1958 however i dont know much about these and their particulars, so be sure to do some research before using them.

If you live in Basra, you may like a Transverse Mercator projection centered on Long 44 and Lat 34. Other options for GIS data projections are detailed below. 

If you are using ESRI ArcGIS ArcMAP desktop, I recommend something like World Mercator as the Map projection, and use WGS84 or Decimal Lat Long to about 6 to 8 decimal places as your data storage datum.

Comments and Suggestions are welcomed. 

GIS Iraq Projections