When our soldiers toppled over a statue of Sadaam Hussein, the Iraqie people were seen giving the thumbs up sign. Is this considered an insult in Iraq or was it just the nice gester I know it to be? Thanks
My Ex (family immigrated from iran), told me that that’s the case in Iran. Don’t know if that generalizes
From the book “Gestures - The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World” by Roger E. Axtell,
also
however,
There is no separate listing for Iraq, although for two other states which border it, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, no mention is made of the gesture.
It’s possible that the use of this gesture varies from one part of the country to another. If this is the case, perhaps the people in the news footage were Shia, and thus their cultural influences came from the more “Iranian” portions of Iraq.