Editing Mudhif (section)

==Recent developments==
In the 1980s, some half a million Arabs lived in the marshes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://personal.lse.ac.uk/coast/Coast%20Marsh%20Arab%20Demography.pdf|title=Total numbers of Marsh Arabs|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725133128/https://personal.lse.ac.uk/coast/Coast%20Marsh%20Arab%20Demography.pdf|archive-date=25 July 2021|access-date=2019-10-30}}</ref> However, from around 1993, [[Saddam Hussein]] began to drain the marshes in an attempt to destroy the life and culture of the southern Arabs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/marsharabs1.pdf|title=The Iraqi Government Assault on Marsh Arabs|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515002607/http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/marsharabs1.pdf|archive-date=15 May 2009|access-date=2019-10-30}}</ref> Following Hussein's defeat in 2003, Arab communities began to dig up the dykes, re-flooding the marshes and resuming their traditional way of life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.circleofblue.org/2013/world/iraqs-first-national-park-a-story-of-destruction-and-restoration-in-the-mesopotamian-marshlands/|title=Iraq's First National Park: A Story of Destruction and Restoration in the Mesopotamian Marshlands|last=Blue|first=Circle of|date=2013-09-04|website=Circle of Blue|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-30|archive-date=27 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127130923/https://www.circleofblue.org/2013/world/iraqs-first-national-park-a-story-of-destruction-and-restoration-in-the-mesopotamian-marshlands/|url-status=live}}</ref>