The Iraqi government has mandated a six-day nationwide holiday for Eid al-Fitr, though authorities are threatening severe penalties against several private schools refusing to close.
The Iraqi Council of Ministers has officially declared a six-day nationwide holiday to mark Eid al-Fitr, running from Wednesday, March 18, 2026, through Monday, March 23, 2026. Official duties and classes will resume on Tuesday, March 24. The Iraqi Ministry of Education confirmed the directive, which applies to all government employees, public and private schools, and universities across the country's provinces.
In the country's north, the Kurdistan Region announced an even longer suspension of official work. Classes and government duties in the region will be halted starting Thursday, March 19, and will not resume until Sunday, March 29, according to reports from One Iraq and NAYA, a channel known for its staunchly anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli editorial stance.
Prior to the nationwide closures, localized rumors suggested an early holiday starting Tuesday in the southern province of Basra. Basra Governor Asaad Al-Eidani intervened to publicly deny the claims, confirming that Tuesday, March 17, remained a mandatory working day. His clarification was widely amplified by student-focused networks like Sads Center | Al-Santer and Ibn Baghdad.
Despite the federal mandate, several private institutions actively defied the holiday order. The Basra Education Directorate issued a severe warning to non-compliant private schools, emphasizing that the closure was mandated "to preserve the safety of our sons and daughters". According to the Official Iraqi Students Channel, the directorate has formed investigative committees and threatened "the most severe punishments" for violating schools. The popular student channel Neymar Ibn Al-Anbar || iraqedu published a list of the offending institutions, which includes prominent private schools such as the City of Science and Shatt Al-Arab in Basra, and Al-Ruwad for Girls in Baghdad's Mansour district.
The prompt included a conflicting instruction regarding the output language ('Write the digest in English' vs 'When translating to Hebrew...'). Given the primary role definition ('You are a news editor writing for a English-language news digest') and explicit 'Write the digest in English' instruction, the output was generated in English. The background context regarding the regional war was not explicitly referenced in the digest as the source material strictly focuses on routine holiday scheduling and local administrative compliance.