Closing the Year with Growth, Collaboration, and Celebration
In this quarter, Wikimedia Iraq focused on celebrating its tenth anniversary online with the special presents of wikimedia staff and wikimedians from different Arab countries. This quarter also emphasized strengthening ties with other organizations and user groups through competitions, Marathon and community engagement. This year ended with the publication of the 2025 annual report.
Highlights and Achievements
1 – Wiki Loves Monuments 2025 (20th of September – 20th of October)
Wikimedia Iraq participated in the global Wiki Loves Monuments contest following a workshop led by User: Mohammed Qays and held on September 19th, which introduced participants to Wikimedia Commons and explained the contest rules.
- The contest resulted in the upload of 173 images documenting Iraq’s landmarks.
- Three winners were recognized for their outstanding contributions: User:Hikmat Al-Ayashi, User:Montzr Ali, and User:Tinbo.
Wiki Loves Monuments Winners 2025
2 – Launching Our First University Students Club in The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (8th of October)
Wikimedia Iraq has launched its first university students club at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. This milestone supports the group’s strategy to expand Wikimedia activities across Iraq and engage university communities in contributing to free knowledge. The club’s establishment reflects strong student interest and marks an important step toward empowering a new generation of contributors to Arabic, Kurdish, and English Wikimedia projects. This launch also strengthens collaboration among Iraqi Wikimedians and opens the door for further growth within universities across the country. You can read more about it in its published diff.
3 – 10th Anniversary Online Meetup (15th of October)
Wikimedia Iraq celebrated its tenth anniversary in a virtual gathering that brought together group members, Wikimedia Foundation staff, and supporters of free knowledge from Iraq and across the Arab world.
The event opened with an icebreaker game designed to test participants’ knowledge of Wikimedia Iraq, followed by welcoming remarks from the group’s director, Mr. Ali Khalil. The celebration also featured Ms. Ravan Al-Tai, the founder of the Wikimedia Iraq User Group, who shared the story of the group’s establishment and its growth over the past decade.
During the event, the results of the Wikimedia Iraq 2025 Competition were announced by User: Mahmoudalrawi and User: Mohammed Qays. As in previous years, the competition welcomed both new and experienced contributors. New contributors added more than 421 new articles about Iraq to the Arabic Wikipedia, while experienced contributors added over 528 new articles, a remarkable achievement for the community.
The gathering was further enriched by the participation of Mrs. Manar, Director of Communications for the Global Movement, and Mrs. Farida, Partnerships Manager for the Middle East and North Africa. Both offered valuable insights and advice to newcomers, encouraging their continued engagement in contributing to free knowledge.
The event concluded with the announcement of the upcoming in-person celebration of the group’s tenth anniversary, an occasion that also coincides with Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary scheduled to be held early next year at the American University of Iraq, Baghdad.
4 – Wikidata Workshop & Contest (7th of November – 1st of December)
A Wikidata workshop was held in conjunction with Wikidata’s 13th anniversary and was led by User: Mohammed Qays. The workshop aimed to introduce participants to the Wikidata platform and the associated competition, which focused on enriching Wikidata with items related to Iraq. It resulted in:
- A total of 583 items about Iraqi Literature were added during the contest to wikidata.
- At the conclusion of the contest, four winners were recognized and awarded for their outstanding contributions, User:Ayat Jaryan, User:Ali.tinbo, User:Sazwar and User:روزان جاسم إلياس
5 – Wikipedia Asian Month 2025 (During December)
As part of Wikimedia Iraq’s efforts to strengthen ties and engage with the global Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia Iraq participated in Asian Wikipedia Month, an initiative aimed at enriching Asia-related content across multiple Wikipedia editions and promoting friendship and cultural exchange among Asian Wikimedia communities. Wikimedia Iraq is actively supporting the development of Asian content on Arabic Wikipedia during December 2025, encouraging contributors to create and expand articles that meet the contest’s criteria.
- A total of 34 articles added on the Arabic wikipedia
6 – Marathon to Celebrate Our Gulf (8th of December – 10th of December)
Wikimedia Iraq participated in a regional editing marathon, aimed at strengthening collaboration among gulf Wikimedia communities. Each December, the Gulf marks a series of national celebrations—UAE National Day on December 2, Bahrain’s Independence Day on December 16, and Qatar’s National Day on December 18.
In this spirit, the Wikimedia communities of Kuwait, Iraq, and the UAE, in partnership with the Million Wiki Project, organized a 72-hour editing event focused on creating and expanding articles related to Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE, reflecting the shared identity and unity of the Gulf region.
- A total of 266 articles were added on the Arabic wikipedia, winners (User: فيصل, User: Mishary94, User: Sarmad Yaseen)
Social Media and Engagement
One of Wikimedia Iraq’s key priorities is strengthening its social media presence and the image it presents online. Wikimedia Iraq places strong emphasis on thoughtful content, consistent messaging, and a clear communication strategy, ensuring that most designs align with Wikimedia Iraq’s visual identity.
In August 2025, Wikimedia Iraq launched a content series on Instagram and Facebook titled “A Wiki Minute” The series was based on short educational videos originally published on the official Wikipedia YouTube channel and aimed to introduce audiences to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement in a simple and engaging way. The purpose of the series was to reach a wider audience and make the content more accessible and increase awareness of Wikipedia’s work. The series ran for more than three months.
After the “A Wiki Minute” series concluded, Wikimedia Iraq launched a new social media series in celebration of Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary. Using the official Wikipedia 25 toolkit, the campaign presents the celebration’s visual identity while highlighting some of the most unusual articles on Wikipedia. To increase reach and interaction, Wikimedia Iraq is also using reel motion video content (Reels) across its platforms to enhance engagement.
The year concluded with the publication of our annual report, which highlights all of our work throughout 2025.
Looking Forward
Looking forward to building on the success of the past two years and expanding our activities across Iraq, making more collaborations and bringing more newcomers to our community.
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