Um Khalid

Um Khalid has an ideal situation for an Iraqi refugee. She’s an engineer working in the private sector who’s married to a Jordanian Sunni. She had a satisfying life living in Amman, Jordan that was quite balanced between caring for her kids and working in their family “water purification device” business. However, as prices got higher in Jordan following “The Kuwait War” and her longing for her homeland got more intense, her family moved to Baghdad. Even during the sanctions, they did well economically since they had their own company. Those who were working for the government at that time had their salaries reduced to a pittance, which of course led to widespread corruption.

Life was reasonably good there until her son, Khalid, a university student who sported a shaved head and a long unkempt beard, was kidnapped. Under Saddam, her son’s beard, which to some indicated sympathy to the Wahabbis (or Salafis) of Saudi Arabia wasn’t a problem because Saddam had an intelligence system that enabled him to know about each and every family in every district. These folks knew that Khalid had no such allegiance nor fanatical intentions. After the fall of Saddam, that intelligence apparatus fell apart, and after several warnings to cut his beard “like a proper Shia” the militia took him off to prison. He remained there for 14 days until his family could locate him and pay the ransom. The night he was released, they moved back to Jordan.

Life for Um Khalid changed. Before, she was friendly with her Jordanian neighbors, enjoying pleasant light conversation over cups of coffee. After this experience, she became passionate about helping less fortunate Iraqi refugee families and the former small talk became unpalatable. Because of her legitimate residency status she’s a lot freer to speak out and stand up for herself when taxi drivers try to drive her “the long way” to her destination or shopkeepers overcharge her once they hear her Iraqi accent.

 

Um Khalid, a Shia, told me that while she believes Malaki (and his executive branch) to be “worse than useless”, she thinks the parliament is filled with reasonable people who, given the chance and support, can rule Iraq constructively. These are people, she says, who are willing to compromise and that once the Americans leave they will be able to make the concessions necessary to create a functioning government that represents all of the people. Some Sunnis and Christians I talked with think the Parliament is against them.

The sectarian violence going on now does not stem from an age-old religious schism, but rather intentional favoritism towards Sunnis, Palestinians and Christians as well as persecution of the Shia and Kurdish communities under Saddam. The continuing violence since his fall exacerbates this. Now the Shia are taking their comeuppance. Once the violence subsides, if there is justice in the new leadership of the Iraqi government, there is a chance that the population, hungry for peace and security, will join in the rebuilding of their country. The sooner that the violence subsides, the more likely this is to come about.

 

Again, I’d like to invite those of you who live in Austin, TX to A Gathering Under the Oaks, a backyard event as a benefit for Austin Center for Peace and Justice. I will be the featured guest along with Oliver Rajamani. It will be held at the home of Steve and Rene Morris Larson (2703 Bridle Path, Austin, TX) on June 14^th from 6:30-9:00 pm. The event is a fundraiser for ACPJ with a suggested donation of $25/student $20. For more information, call 799-5117. I will give a short presentation followed by an informal discussion. I hope you can come.

This is the last entry for the section of my blog on Iraqi women refugees. Postings after this one will come as I feel inspired to write.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. Peggy

Intro

Women Worldwide Speak

Women Worldwide Speak is an outgrowth of The Afghan Women’s Project which I created in 2002 to dispel the view, so prevalent in the media of that time, of Afghan women as helpless victims. After traveling to Afghanistan in 2003 and interviewing 40 women in and from different parts of the country, I created an exhibit and series of slide presentations which I show around the US. (www.kelseys.net)

Now, four years later, I was again drawn to document the stories of women, this time of Iraqi refugee women living in Jordan.

So, now I’m here in Amman visiting agencies and conducting interviews. And of course photographing, but none of the faces will be included here. The majority of the Iraqi refugees living here are illegal.

Zahra, my translator, is a delightful woman, a one-woman social work agency. Her family life growing up was difficult. Although she was by far the best student, and voluntarily spent hours cleaning the house, her mother and siblings treated her badly, perhaps jealous of her academic prowess and her drive to improve her surroundings. Her father was her only ally, but he was taken away (They came to her house and arrested him) by Saddam’s henchmen when she was 11. Her brother, a pilot who lived the “high life”, was also taken away a few years later. After two years of torture and 10 years of confinement, he has become a strict fundamentalist Muslim. One day when she was 19, she came home to find that her mother had made an agreement to marry her off. It didn’t work out and now she lives with and supports her two teenage daughters.

When Zahra came to Jordan 9 years ago, she was given a 6-month visa, which she had to leave the country to renew and did several times. Since she speaks English, she was able to get work with an NGO (an international non-profit) and this opened up the path of social work for her. The NGO eventually went out of business, but Zahra has kept up her work connecting poor Iraqis with agencies who could help them. She supports herself by doing translation work as well as contract wedding photography.

May 13^th, she will begin a 3-month trip to the United States, taking training in Vermont and speaking in Philadelphia, the Seattle area and Texas. I will keep you posted on her itinerary as it develops.

May 3rd, 2007, the Iraqi parliament will vote on oil legislation that would give 70% of the oil profit the to the oil companies and 12% to Iraq. Currently, of course, when it’s all running, Iraq gets 100%. The parliament is expected to vote against this, of course, but everyone thinks that Malaki will overrule them. The fellow we talked with thinks that the Malaki gov’t. (executive branch) won’t last through the summer. We’ll see.