In the midst of political tension, what is life like for Iraqi American immigrants who have made new homes in the United States? This timely book encourages and empowers readers to understand complex issues that affect many Iraqi Americans today. They'll learn about critical events in modern history, which provide context for current events in the United States and around the world. Powerful photographs make this highly relevant topic tangible for readers. Fact boxes highlight key points and encourage questions. This informative book handles complicated topics with sensitivity, celebrates the unique and valuable ways Iraqi Americans influence contemporary American culture, and inspires understanding, making it a vital addition to any library or classroom.
A reporter in Iraq shows how the U.S. squandered its early victories and goodwill among the Iraqi public and allowed the newly freed society to descend into violence and chaos. Here is a brutally honest account of a reporter who discovered how popular the U.S. presence was in Iraq-and who watched this change as the Bush administration mishandled the war, leaving us with the intractable conflict we face today.
A debut Memoir in the form of a series of journeys, beginning in 2001 and ending in 2014, in which the author discovers and rediscovers herself and her birthplace at dramatic intervals for both. Beginning in the wake of 9/11 - Nadia flies 'home' with her mother to find life difficult under Saddam's Iraq dictatorship and US sanctions. Her fate seems to follow like a river the charged destiny of her native land. Returning in 2006, Nadia is on a new mission- Saddam is dead, and the country has been damaged and almost destroyed by the Iran/Iraq and Gulf wars. She arrives this time, in her official professional capacity as a high ranking consultant for The United States Agency for International Development, USAID helping to restore Iraq's economy and infrastructure. Her next several journeys take on the rhythm of a professional commute as she lives and works in the Green Zone. Her final, or at least most recent visit in 2014 is the most highly charged: Nadia must return to Baghdad despite rising terrorism and immediate threat. Her reasons are deep and manifold. Her own personal life is in chaos, and she longs for the comfort of her Khalas, the only women in the world, who collectively can help heal her grief over the death of her mother. Visit: http: //www.nadiaalsultani.com
In the midst of political tension, what is life like for Iraqi American immigrants who have made new homes in the United States? This timely book encourages and empowers readers to understand complex issues that affect many Iraqi Americans today. They'll learn about critical events in modern history, which provide context for current events in the United States and around the world. Powerful photographs make this highly relevant topic tangible for readers. Fact boxes highlight key points and encourage questions. This informative book handles complicated topics with sensitivity, celebrates the unique and valuable ways Iraqi Americans influence contemporary American culture, and inspires understanding, making it a vital addition to any library or classroom.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • National Book Award Finalist • This "eyewitness history of the first order ... should be read by anyone who wants to understand how things went so badly wrong in Iraq” (The New York Times Book Review). The Green Zone, Baghdad, Iraq, 2003: in this walled-off compound of swimming pools and luxurious amenities, Paul Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority set out to fashion a new, democratic Iraq. Staffed by idealistic aides chosen primarily for their views on issues such as abortion and capital punishment, the CPA spent the crucial first year of occupation pursuing goals that had little to do with the immediate needs of a postwar nation: flat taxes instead of electricity and deregulated health care instead of emergency medical supplies. In this acclaimed firsthand account, the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post gives us an intimate portrait of life inside this Oz-like bubble, which continued unaffected by the growing mayhem outside. This is a quietly devastating tale of imperial folly, and the definitive history of those early days when things went irrevocably wrong in Iraq.
Artists have a story, a story that affects their pallets. In Iraqi Americans: The Lives of the Artists, Namou wanted to honor artists of Mesopotamian ancestry by giving them the opportunity to share their incredible stories themselves rather than risk having others to do it for them, as was the case with Layla Al Attar. Layla Al Attar died in 1993, along with her husband, after her house was bombed by a US missile. Iraqi news announced that she was killed since she was responsible for creating the mosaic of George Bush Sr.'s face on the steps of Al Rashid Hotel, over which Iraqis and people from all over the world walked on upon entering. Unfortunately, she is remembered more so by how she died rather than by her incredible talent and the way in which she lived her life. Worse than that, many misinterpret the play 9 Parts of Desire by Heather Raffo to be based on her life. Like Al Attar, the 16 artists in this book are not victims, but victors over their lives, following their passions and finding ways to showcase it despite any and all challenges.
Caught up in a terrifying war, facing choices of life and death, two Iraqi sisters take us into the hidden world of women’s lives under U.S. occupation. Through their powerful story of love and betrayal, interwoven with the stories of a Palestinian American women’s rights activist and a U.S. soldier, journalist Christina Asquith explores one of the great untold sagas of the Iraq war: the attempt to bring women’s rights to Iraq, and the consequences for all those involved. On the heels of the invasion, twenty-two-year-old Zia accepts a job inside the U.S. headquarters in Baghdad, trusting that democracy will shield her burgeoning romance with an American contractor from the disapproval of her fellow Iraqis. But as resistance to the U.S. occupation intensifies, Zia and her sister, Nunu, a university student, are targeted by Islamic insurgents and find themselves trapped between their hopes for a new country and the violent reality of a misguided war. Asquith sets their struggle against the broader U.S. efforts to bring women’s rights to Iraq, weaving the sisters’ story with those of Manal, a Palestinian American women’s rights activist, and Heather, a U.S. army reservist, who work together to found Iraq’s first women’s center. After one of their female colleagues is gunned down on a highway, Manal and Heather must decide whether they can keep fighting for Iraqi women if it means risking their own lives. In Sisters in War, Christina Asquith introduces the reader to four women who dare to stand up for their rights in the most desperate circumstances. With compassion and grace, she vividly reveals the plight of women living and serving in Iraq and offers us a vision of how women’s rights and Islam might be reconciled.
During the war's worst fighting in 2006 and 2007, a handful of Iraqi interpreters put their lives on the line to help American troops. Families threatened, a bounty on their heads, ignored by the powers that be, they faced execution as collaborators with the enemy if they remained in their homeland. A Task Force Commander decides a promise made should be a promise kept. After the murders of several Iraqi allies, Lt. Col Steve Miska decides to slice through the bureaucratic red tape to get interpreters to safety. His team creates the Baghdad Underground Railroad to get the "terps" and other allies out of the country to Jordan for their Embassy interviews. Soldiers also tap their own families in the United States to serve as sponsors to house and assist the new immigrants. For the Iraqis, they face the struggle of adapting to a culture vastly different from their own. One of them even joins the U.S. Army and returns to Iraq as an American soldier. In this compelling memoir that illustrates humanity and compassion in the midst of war, Steve Miska highlights the plight of local allies, who are essential to the American cause in foreign wars but are often left behind. He also offers an insider's look at the complex and frustrating political reality of Iraq facing U.S. commanders and policymakers following the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
