The context following the Islamic State invasion in Iraq is characterized on the one hand by the “militia-zation” of the Iraqi regime and on the other hand by the strengthening of movements of civil society protests. I argue that these polarized social and political phenomena, need to be analyzed in looking at neoliberal economic politics (privatization, job crisis etc.) the political economy of war and militarization, and the “toxicity of everyday life” - the structural conditions of everyday life and livelihood such as health and sanitary infrastructures and environmental conditions-. Relying on recent ethnographic research among women, youth and civil society organizations and networks in Baghdad, Najaf-Kufa, Karbala and Nasiriya. I explore the social, economic and political dimensions that structure recent movement of protests, revealing a shift from identity politics to “issue politics”. I also look at the political and structural mechanisms that resulted in the violent repression of these new forms of political activisms. While recognizing the importance of identity-based categories (sect, tribe, religion, ethnicity etc.), I argue that it is equally important to analyze them as relational (existing in relation to one another), changing and dynamic. Thus, this paper explores the articulation between different forms of structural violence, senses of belongings, competing political discourses and concrete practices of civil society activisms in today’s Iraq.