Friday, April 8, 2016

    Book Review: Iraqi Girl

    Book Review: ‘IraqiGirl’ Hadiya’s a poet and blogger, but what this book reveals is that she isn’t a “normal” girl. By Erik Leaver. Edited by Jennifer Doak, September 23, 2009.  iraqi girlAfter nearly seven years of ongoing war and occupation, many in the United States are resigned to wait for December 2011—the promised date for final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi soil. But in Iraq, the war and occupation remain central to the lives of Iraqis where they are living with feeble security; a lack of basic services including electricity, water, and sanitary services; inadequate access to health care; and, a devastated economy. It’s been easier for Americans to ignore the Iraq War as headlines have faded as the war in Afghanistan becomes more prominent. They include discussions of weeklong curfews, closure of schools, relatives that have been killed, and stories of those who families were forced to flee. While Americans discuss troop levels, battlefield tactics, and casualty rates, the stories from Iraq are much different.
    Book Review: Iraqi Girl

    Book Review: Iraqi Girl 

    Americans have received fleeting glimpses of what Iraq really looks like over the years from the mainstream media. Their work caused rise to a new genre of book—compilations of blog posts. Baghdad Burning by Riverbend and Iraq War Blog stand out as those that should be required reading for anyone studying the war.But far more powerful stories have been told by those Iraqis still on the ground. As the war and occupation began, a crop of Iraqi bloggers took the stage to stand as public witnesses to the ravages of war.

    A new book now joins that list of must-reads, IraqiGirl. This compilation of blog posts stands out from the rest because of the age of the writer. Hadiya published her first post on July 29, 2004 at the age of 15. Hadiya writes, “At the beginning of the war, when we heard an explosion we called all the family to make sure that they are fine. But now because the explosions don’t stop all day, we stopped calling each other.” Her writing focuses far more on her family and school than on the politics and battlefield that consumed the writing of Riverbend and others. On one hand, it makes the book less useful for scholars of the war but on the other, it is an essential tool for activists and those teaching younger generations in the United States and around the world about what it’s like to live with war surrounding you. The daily trauma of war is illuminated in nearly every blog post.

    As the war goes on, the writing and story lines remain a constant. Hadiya worries about school, her family, and her friends. One keeps reading hoping to see a change on the ground. But one of Hadiya’s most oft-repeated phrases of the book is that “things are getting worse.” Indeed, even in her final few posts in November 2007, she writes After all, President George W. Bush repeatedly assured the American public that we were “succeeding”., “The basic fact is that we are still insecure and in danger even when we are in our own homes.”

    Born in 1989, she has lived almost her entire life under war or occupation, as the Gulf War started in 1991. She puts the basics that many take for granted into perspective. Hadiya doesn’t write about hope in her posts, but she continually displays it. Her dedication to her schooling (now age 20, she is enrolled in pharmacy school at the University of Mosul) and in her continued posts (since the publication of the book, she has continued her blog) are strong indicators that she, like most Iraqis, believes that the future will be better. “When I was a little girl, I once asked my mother if there is any country where there is electricity all day? I couldn’t imagine that! How could they have electricity all the time when we only had four to seven hours of it? And many days, we didn’t have any electricity at all.”


    The Iraqi people should have hope. The occupation is starting to wind down, development of oil production provides possibilities for reconstruction of the country, and Iraq has a rich history to draw upon. Reading IraqiGirl reminds one of the great obligations the U.S. has to the Iraqi people as it starts to withdraw. The brave children who have grown up in a war zone, such as Hadiya, are owed the most. But while there is hope, peril also looms closely. Political reconciliation is desperately needed, economic development is lagging, and many complex political questions remain unresolved.

    Book Review: Iraqi Girl


    Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace Review

    Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace Reviewed by Michael Gillespie  PEGGY FAW Gish takes peacemaking seriously. While the vast majority of American Christians lead comfortable lives at a safe remove from the activities of their government’s military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere across the Middle East, Gish’s work as a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams sends her daily into the chaos, warfare and destruction that is occupied Iraq.
    Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace Review

    Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace Review


    She was there in March 2003 as well, and has since returned several times as a leader or core member of four- to eight-person Christian Peacemaker Teams. Gish first led a Christian Peacemaker Team to Iraq in October 2002, five months prior to the U.S. invasion.  Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace is her thoughtful and sensitively rendered chronicle of her experience.

    Explaining her philosophy of peacemaking to an audience during a winter 2004-2005 speaking tour of the U.S., Gish said, “We get in the way of injustice when we see it.  Gish and her colleagues practice “getting in the way.” We have the grandmother effect. There are things you wouldn’t do if your grandmother were watching, and there are things soldiers won’t do if other people are watching.”

    And opening and helping to maintain lines of communication between U.S. forces and Iraqi community leaders, Gish and her colleagues also advocate on behalf of the victims of injustice at the hands of U.S. forces.In addition to literally placing themselves between U.S. military forces and civilians who are at risk of attack, investigating reports of systemic injustice and abuse visited upon Iraqi civilians by U.S. forces,
    “Being North Americans in Iraq carries a lot of privilege,” Gish writes. “On the street, our lighter skin, our hair, and our clothing made us stand out in any crowd. We had access to information and resources from back home that helped us rise above some of the limitations and chaos of post-invasion Iraq. We wanted to use this privilege, not only to help Iraqis speak out or to help them access what little help was available, but also to speak directly on their behalf to those in power.”We were able to get into CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] or U.S. military offices and talk to personnel whom Iraqis didn’t have access to, because of our passports, English language, and some knowledge of how these systems operated. We also had some power as voters back home.

    But she says she finds it more difficult to convey the truth about U.S. actions in Iraq to an American public that does not want to know.Gish, who has seen far more death and destruction in Iraq during the past three years than most Americans witness in a lifetime, admits that her volunteer work in Iraq is difficult at times. Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace Reviewed

    They fear...any criticism of U.S. policy in Iraq....They are accustomed to accepting what the government says, that violence and war are the only ways to deal with evil, even though this is a contradiction of the gospel message. I pray that somehow God will use what I say to open their hearts and minds.” “Probably the hardest work I do is to speak to the people in the U.S. who don’t want to hear anything different from what the mainline media is reporting or anything critical of our government,” writes Gish. “It is especially hard to speak to Christian people who don’t want to try to view the war or occupation in light of the way of Jesus, the way of nonviolent, suffering love.

    Although it may be difficult to imagine how anyone could write a book dealing so directly with the horrors of the war on and occupation of Iraq and title it Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace, Peggy Faw Gish’s account of her living Christian faith at work in the midst of almost unimaginable danger and difficulty is a labor of love that may well open hearts and minds here at home.

    Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace Review