Governorates of Iraq

Iraq consists of 19 governorates (muḥāfażah), also known as "provinces". The country was divided into eighteen governorates by Saddam Hussein in the 1970s, which currently remain in place, but plans were announced in 2014 to divide the nation into more governorates. Hussein divided the nation into these governorates and districts for reasons of ethnic manipulation, although it was later found that they were mainly ethnically balanced/neutral. An area of the country that is part of Kurdistan, known as Iraqi Kurdistan, was granted autonomy in 1970. In 2003, after opposition from Kurdish people regarding the division of Kurdistan into governorates, the autonomous standing of Iraqi Kurdistan was re-confirmed in 2005 in the constitution of Iraq.