Marsh Arabs

Call me a lightweight but I've never really tried travel writing before and I always feel slightly unnerved when I read non-fiction. For some reason I think I'm going to tire of real life in a way that fiction continues to grip me. Anyway, no need to worry with Wilfred Thesiger. Really good. I haven't finished yet but I am really glad I picked this one up. After seeing his photos at the Natural History Museum in Oxford last week I knew I had to read this book. I suppose he's the last of the explorers. I'm entranced by the way these people build homes from reeds. Not only protection against the elements, as you often see in the 'mut hut' approach to foreign travel, but beautiful structures that look Arabian even though they are essentially a bunch of weeds a la three little pigs. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/images/11-Mudhif.jpg These Arabs live in Iraq and, from what I've read so far, seem to be entirely uninfluenced by the outside world. Does anyone know what has happened to these people since Thesiger wrote about them in the 50's?