Qaf-Ghayn fronting in Mesopotamian Arabic is one a phonological case of changing Qaf sound to Ghayn sound and vice versa. For example, the word (Qabagh), would be pronounced as (Qabaq) in some of the areas of Mesopotamian Arabic. Mesopotamian Arabic is spoken in south Turkey down to Arab inhabited areas in Syria, most of the Arab inhabited areas of Iraq and finally in Ahwaz (Iran).
The phenomenon is used to exist clearly in rural area inhabitants, therefore, it is used to be mocked by urban cities inhabitants and to use it as an indicator of less civilized background. ِa few months ago, I listened to an interview with Izzat Al-Shahbandar, an Iraqi politician from Baghdad who refused to comment about the selection of Haybat Al-Halbusi (from Anbar province) as a chief of oil and gas committee in the parliament, he just said (Qaz and Ṭagha) (Taqa means energy) referring to the accent of Al-Halbusi. He mentioned that to indicate the ineligibility of that person.
A similar case of fronting happens in Persian, which leads some people to the assumption that this kind of fronting is an effect of Persian on Iraqi dialect. Personally, I doubted about that. Although the phenomena is more common in Ahwaz, it still very clear in Sunni rural areas, which was isolated from the effects of Persian since the Abbasid era.
By searching more about this type of fronting, I found that it is also available in north and northeast Sudan, the Beduins of Yemen, and areas around Ghardaya state in Algeria where people to convert Ghayn to Qaf only, so they call their state (Qardaya). In addition to a special case in Bani-Swef in Egypt where they change only specific words such as the verb (Yaqdir) which means (can) is pronounced (Yaghdir). In is also worthy to mention that people in Sudan also mock this accent and consider it as something uncivilized, according to Abdulmonim Al-Fia.
To discover this phenomenon in Mesopotamian Arabic, I created a map that includes all the areas where people use this fronting in their accents. I watched many videos from the selected cities and I asked people who live in the cities or visited them before. The map shows that this type of fronting is available across Mesopotamia, and it is not seen in the accents of people who live in cities except in Ahwaz.
What makes people think that this phenomenon is related to Persian, is the same way that Persian speakers do with Qaf and Ghayn, but the reason here is different. As the Persian language does not have the letter Qaf originally in older versions of the language, all the words that include Qaf in Persian now are either Arabic or Turkish words.
My final assumption is that Qaf-Ghayn fronting is an old phenomenon that could be seen in older Arabic accents that are unfortunately not recorded enough due to the use of some Standard form of Arabic in writing during.