At first, this seemed a little odd as a campaign technique:
Young members of the Mahdi Army, Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s militia, flagellate themselves as they pass election posters in Baghdad. Photo Credit: By Ellen Knickmeyer — The Washington Post
But then I remembered that our candidates have a long history of self-flagellation:
So maybe we are not all that different after all.
In all seriousness, this is an interesting piece in the WaPo about Iraqi political parties embracing the electoral process.