From coffee cups to TikTok: Iraq’s fortune-telling goes digital
Shafaq News
For generations, Iraqis seeking answers about marriage, children or difficult decisions might have turned to women who read fortunes from coffee cups or used books and dictionaries as forms of divination.
Now, the ritual has moved online.
Across TikTok and other social media platforms, Iraqi women are turning traditional fortune-reading into live-streamed services, answering questions about relationships and major life decisions for fees ranging from 5,000 dinars (about $3.80) to 100,000 dinars (about $76).
For some practitioners, what began as curiosity has become a source of income. “I didn’t practice dictionary readings professionally, and I never thought of it as a way to make money,” Lama Mohsen, who has been offering readings on social media for around two years, told Shafaq News. “I started out of curiosity, reading for relatives and friends. But as more people began asking me, it gradually became regular work.”
The questions she receives are rarely trivial, Mohsen said. Most concern marriage, separation, reconciliation or moving to a new home. Some clients return for another reading when the first answer is not what they hoped to hear.
Old Practice, New Platform
The shift marks a striking change in how a longstanding popular practice reaches its audience. Where readings traditionally took place face to face, with lengthy conversations before an interpretation was offered, social media has reduced the process to a livestream: a viewer submits a question and receives an answer on screen.
Growing demand has also expanded the range of services. Alongside traditional forms of divination using dictionaries, some practitioners now offer tarot readings and astrology-related content.
Sultana Hamid, who has hosted readings on social media for several years, distinguishes tarot from astrology, saying tarot uses a deck of 78 symbol-rich cards selected during a reading, while astrology draws on birth information and the 12 zodiac signs.
For Yusr Malik, however, dictionary-based readings remain more appealing. “The dictionary is one of the popular tools deeply rooted in the minds of women and girls, and they trust it,” she told Shafaq News.
Malik said her TikTok livestreams have attracted a large following and provided her with a steady income.
Seeking Certainty in Uncertainty
The popularity of the services may be about more than predicting the future. Ruqaya Fouad, a regular viewer of TikTok fortune-reading streams, said she turns to them when struggling with difficult decisions.
“Sometimes the khira helps relieve our uncertainty,” she said. “Especially when we are uncertain and cannot make a decision, we turn to the dictionary to try to find some clarity.”
Whatever the method, Fouad said, the answers can have a psychological effect during difficult periods, providing a sense of clarity when circumstances feel uncertain.
Researcher Hassan Abdul Samad cautioned, however, against allowing such readings to determine consequential decisions.
Read more: The fortune-tellers: Spinsters' way of trapping young men into marriage
Some people rely entirely on the result of a khira rather than assessing their circumstances realistically, he told Shafaq News. While a reading may ease psychological pressure for someone struggling with a difficult choice, major decisions should ultimately be based on careful consideration and realistic judgment.
What was once a largely private encounter has acquired a new audience, business model and platform. The dictionary and tarot deck remain much the same; the fortune teller is now on the other side of a smartphone screen.
Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.
