Iraq’s oil wealth, rather than ensuring prosperity, has entrenched dependency through a system of imperial economic control often called the “resource curse.” After World War I, Britain seized Iraq from the Ottoman Empire under a League of Nations Mandate (Sluglett, 2007, p. 14) and installed King Faisal I to maintain colonial authority, establishing what Adam Hanieh refers to as a “colonial monopoly on violence” (Hanieh, 2024, p. 61). This power dynamic paved the way for the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), dominated by British, French, and eventually American interests. IPC restricted oil production to preserve scarcity and maximize profit, while agreements like the 1928 Achnacarry Pact fixed global prices through tactics like phantom freight pricing, minimizing Iraq’s earnings (Hanieh, 2024, p. 66). Even after nationalizing IPC in 1972, Iraq remained tethered to the petrodollar system—selling oil in U.S. dollars and reinvesting profits in U.S. debt markets (Gladstein, 2022, pp. 39–40; Hudson, as quoted in Gladstein, p. 213). This shift from formal colonialism to financial imperialism laid the groundwork for the 2003 U.S. invasion, reinforcing dollar supremacy under the guise of liberation (Gladstein, 2022, p. 43).

After World War II, the U.S. emerged as the dominant global economic power, prompting 44 Allied nations to adopt a dollar-gold standard at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, with the IMF overseeing fixed exchange rates (Hanieh, 2024, p. 169). As U.S. military spending rose—particularly during the Vietnam War—the dollar became overextended, and in 1971, President Nixon ended gold convertibility, collapsing the Bretton Woods system (Hanieh, 2024, p. 170). To maintain dollar dominance, the U.S. struck a 1974 deal with Saudi Arabia: in exchange for military support, the Saudis agreed to sell oil exclusively in dollars and reinvest their profits in U.S. treasuries, establishing the petrodollar system (Gladstein, 2022, pp. 39–40). Fearing exclusion from global markets, countries like Iraq followed suit. As economist Michael Hudson notes, this system relied on keeping OPEC states from investing in their own development, instead channeling oil wealth into U.S. debt markets (Hudson, as quoted in Gladstein, 2022, p. 213). While the U.S. financed its growth through foreign capital, Iraq remained underdeveloped and economically dependent—trapped in a system that reinforced imperial control through financial means.

To preserve dollar supremacy, the U.S. has repeatedly used military force against states that challenge the petrodollar system. In 2000, Saddam Hussein began selling oil in euros, prompting fears that other countries might adopt a “petroeuro” and undermine the dollar’s role in global finance. By 2003, Iraq had sold 3.3 billion barrels for 26 billion euros (Gladstein, 2022, p. 42). That March, the U.S. invaded Iraq—officially to stop weapons of mass destruction, though none were found—and by June, oil sales returned to dollars (Gladstein, 2022, p. 43). As Alex Gladstein and Adam Hanieh argue, this war was less about liberation and more about disciplining a state that asserted oil sovereignty (Gladstein, 2022, p. 43; Hanieh, 2024, pp. 183–187). U.S. power over the global oil economy has long depended not just on financial arrangements like the petrodollar, but also on punishing any country that attempts to break from them.

The 2003 invasion was justified through an orientalist lens that cast the Middle East as irrational, dangerous, and in need of Western intervention. Edward Said warned of the dehumanizing power of this framework, which intensified after 9/11 and fueled mass support for military action (Said, 1978, p. 27). With over 70% of Americans backing the war (Gladstein, 2022, p. 43), the invasion became a textbook case of what Naomi Klein calls the “shock doctrine”: neoliberal restructuring under crisis (Klein, 2007, 13:50). Under Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq was radically deregulated—its army disbanded, tariffs removed (CPA, 2003), state enterprises slated for privatization, and foreign ownership legalized. These moves caused mass unemployment and economic collapse, paving the way for future IMF oversight. Noor’s exploitation must be seen through this context of calculated economic dislocation.

By 2005, Iraq had entered a Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF that required privatization, market liberalization, and cuts to food and fuel subsidies—core features of structural adjustment (Gladstein, 2023, p. 25). These reforms further eroded state institutions and expanded a deregulated private sector where labor protections were hollowed out. Though Iraq passed a new labor law in 2015, enforcement remains weak (Shafaq News, 2023). Migrant and informal workers, particularly women like Noor, face exploitative conditions and little legal recourse. IMF-imposed “flexibility” effectively expanded the shadow economy, reinforcing the vulnerabilities created by occupation. Iraq’s economic reconstruction, marketed as development, instead deepened dependency and denied sovereignty to the very people it claimed to help (El Saadi, 2017, pp. 24–29).

In 2025, Iraq remains tethered to the petrodollar system, continuing to sell oil in U.S. dollars and invest portions of its revenues in U.S. Treasury securities—a strategy that once offered stability during oil price downturns but now reinforces dependence (Gladstein, 2022, pp. 39–40; Hudson, as quoted in Gladstein, p. 213). Despite repaying its IMF debt in 2024, Iraq still faces rising public debt, volatile oil revenues, and persistent economic fragility (Iraqi Economists Network, 2024). Protests by workers demanding fair wages and better conditions reflect growing frustration with a system shaped by decades of privatization, deregulation, and external control (Shafaq News, 2025). Efforts to diversify the economy remain hampered by weak infrastructure and an overreliance on oil, leaving Iraq vulnerable to global market shocks (Sharaq News, 2025). Although the country is no longer under a formal IMF agreement, the structural legacies of IMF-led reforms—combined with the constraints of the petrodollar system—continue to undermine economic sovereignty (El Saadi, 2017, pp. 24–25; Gladstein, 2023, p. 25). In response, Iraqi labor unions and civil society groups are increasingly mobilizing for wage justice, economic reform, and freedom from foreign financial domination (Shafaq News, 2025).

Noor’s undocumented status makes her highly vulnerable in Iraq’s deregulated economy, where employers face little accountability. As a Syrian migrant woman, she faces overlapping forms of exploitation: grueling hours, low wages, and exposure to sexual harassment—all compounded by her outsider status in a racialized labor hierarchy that renders Syrian and African women particularly disposable. In one case, attorney Hadeel Al-Azzawi documented the rape of a Kenyan domestic worker by her employer’s son, alongside ten other Kenyan women hiding after escaping abuse (Nassiri, 2024). These stories illustrate how gender, race, and migration status intersect to expose poor women to the most extreme forms of exploitation within Iraq’s informal labor market.

As El Saadi explains, it is “poor, racialized, and female migrant workers who are forced to bear the full weight of IMF-backed ‘labor liberalization’” (El Saadi, 2017, p. 28). Deceptive recruitment, passport confiscation, and contract substitution are common, often coupled with sexual violence and limited legal recourse (El Saadi, 2017, p. 29). Noor’s case reflects how neoliberal economic restructuring—under the guise of modernization—has deepened systemic inequalities (Gladstein, 2023, p. 24). Her exploitation is not an exception but a predictable outcome of a global system that dismantles public protections, favors multinational profits, and relies on expendable labor. Iraq’s oil wealth, once seen as a path to national prosperity, has instead become the mechanism through which sovereignty is stripped and economic control is maintained (Gladstein, 2022, pp. 213, 223; Hanieh, 2024, pp. 183–187). Noor’s suffering is not a flaw in the system—it is the system functioning as designed.