I had a long chat with a lady from Iraq today. Born and raised in, and longtime resident of Baghdad. Even for someone as self-professedly liberal and open-minded as I like to think I am, it was an eye-opening conversation. I dont think she said anything that necessarily shocked or surprised me, but even still, hearing it from someone standing next to you is a world apart from even the most sympathetic account the news or other media can deliver, and sympathetic slants on stories from Iraq are already hard to come by in this country. She talked of witnessing death happening in front of her in the street. Of a car bombing happening yards away from a building where she was picking up her children. Of a militia taking her home and all her belongings from her. I was fascinated and fighting to hold back tears for most of our chat. Not just tears of sympathy, either, but tears of anger. Angry that a place exists where a quiet, intelligent woman must go about her life as best she can, living with the daily fear that she or her family are not safe. Angry that so many people I know and am surrounded by each day would not give her the time of day if they knew she was Iraqi, and that for all her belief that she is safe in the US, were she not in a major metropolitan are she might face bigotry and mistrust and even danger were she to cross paths with the wrong sort of overzealous nutjob. And mostly angry at my own country, for its long, tortuous transformation of the Middle East into an insane, lawless hell. I asked her specifically, were things better when Saddam Hussein was in power. She referred repeatedly to 2003 as the year everything changed. The various factions within her country, the Christians, Sunni, and Shiite, had tension, but equal treatment under the law. Husseins rule was strict but fair. But since the new puppet government was put in place, Sunni (her group) have been persecuted. She spoke of purchasing electricity by the Ampre from a who owned a generator, because the power system in the country has been destroyed and replaced with nothing. I could go on and on. We only talked for about an hour, but my mind has been racing ever since.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 02:55:16 +0000
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