How are the Iraqis coping? What is life like in Iraq now? Why aren’t these questions being asked to Iraqis by the mainstream American media?

Recently, the American Muslim Women’s Association and WESPAC Foundation organized a lecture featuring Nermin Al-Mufti, an Iraqi female journalist on tour in the United States to talk about the impact of the occupation on Iraq. Al-Mufti’s political column appeared for over 20 years in Al Thawra newspaper – believed by many to be the "official mouthpiece” of the Ba’athist Party, and which stopped publishing after the U.S. invasion of Baghdad. She says she was never a Ba’ath Party member. “If we are accused of being pro-Saddam, it’s for a very simple reason: we chose to stay in Iraq ... It is a silly issue that all 43 million people should leave Iraq to prove they are anti-Saddam.” Following the lecture, we spoke with her.

Anyone who has lived under a dictatorship will probably understand the choice she made. Others would probably doubt her intentions and the validity of her perspective. Given this reality, it was appropriate to speak with another Iraqi, so as to give a more well-rounded account of life in post-Saddam Iraq.

Imam Husham Al-Hussainy, the director of the Karballah Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Michigan, is an Iraqi American Shi’ite who fled Iraq more than 20 years ago, after Saddam’s government jailed his brother. An aircraft engineer prior to becoming an Imam, Husainy refers to Saddam as “a bloodsucker, a devil, a thug.” Last year, when demonstrations were being organized all around the world opposing the invasion, Husainy organized a counter demonstration in Washington to present the views of those who had suffered under Saddam’s regime. He recently returned from his first trip back to Iraq.

Occupation or Liberation?

Whether you supported or opposed the Saddam regime or the American occupation, the main issue haunting Iraqis right now is not the whereabouts of the weapons of mass destruction. Rather, they are asking: Where is the democracy that America promised them? Are the Iraqi people calling the Americans liberators or occupiers?

NARIM AL-MUFTI: Nobody can convince the Iraqis that this occupation is liberation. The occupying forces in Iraq are violating every single international law. They are violating the Geneva Convention, which says that occupying forces should protect civilians and their property.

IMAM HUSAINY: In the beginning, it looked like liberation, but unwise policies of the coalition made the people feel it was an occupation. The coalition is looking for puppets to hire to serve their interests when they leave. If that’s what they want to do, there will never be freedom in Iraq. We did not fight against Saddam so that we could be ruled by a hired puppet. Let there be elections.

Security and Looting

Who is to blame for the rise in crime in Iraq?

IMAM HUSAINY: There is one finger pointed towards the coalition. It wants to scare the United Nations from going to Iraq so it can stay there longer, and it tells the Iraqis that they can’t make it without the Americans. Another finger is pointed towards the foreigners from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen in Baghdad. On the second day of Ramadan, they attacked a police station that was next to a school and a grocery store. This was done during the day. Children and women were killed. Iraqis won’t do this. They discovered later on it was a guy from Yemen. A third finger points to the old Ba’athist agents of Saddam, who don’t want to lose power.

NERMIN: The Geneva Convention says occupying forces are supposed to protect women from rape. According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of women were raped in Baghdad between May 10 and July 10. Nobody says who did it. I investigated four cases involving three young women and a nine-year-old child –it took two weeks in hospital for her bleeding to stop. Because rape is considered shameful in Iraq, this means that hundreds of raped women were killed by their families and hundreds more will stay silent.

Didn’t these crimes exist before the occupation? Uday would abduct women from the streets and rape them.

NERMIN: There were crimes (before the occupation). We heard many things about Uday so nobody can defend him. Yes, he did these things, but not hundreds of women, not thousands of women. Uday was very brutal, very criminal, and without any values.

Soldiers vs. Civilians

What are the main problems between the American soldiers and Iraqi civilians?

NERMIN: The Americans there have not been educated about the Arabic language, the Iraqi accent, or Iraqi body language. They didn’t know anything about Iraq as a Muslim conservative society. On April 25th in Faluja, a young American soldier at a checkpoint insisted upon searching an Iraqi woman. Her husband refused, because in a tribal area like Faluja, for an Iraqi woman to be searched by a strange Iraqi brings shame. Imagine what it would be like to be searched by an occupying soldier? They organized a demonstration asking the Americans to pull out from Faluja and the Americans fired into the crowd. Nineteen people were killed. The resistance began in this way.

What are the causes of these incidents?

IMAM HUSAINY: There’s frustration on both sides. I hear that many soldiers are running away or committing suicide or getting psychological treatment. I’m not surprised because the Iraqi situation is bad. [During my visit], there was not one day when the earth didn’t shake beneath me from explosions. There is frustration on the Iraqi side as well. There are no jobs, no food, no money, no security, no services.

It’s not the soldiers’ fault. It’s the policymakers’ fault. The soldiers did a great job: they liberated Iraq and changed the regime. They act like an occupational force because the situation hasn’t improved, because of so many explosions and so much bloodshed. Iraqis don’t see the soldiers as friends. There is uncertainty and if the policy doesn’t improve, it will change to hate.

Daily Life For Iraqis

Give us a description of daily life for Iraqis.

NERMIN: In order to live, you have love, dreams, happiness, dignity, serenity. All these elements make up a real life. We don’t have this in Iraq right now. We haven’t had it for the last 13 years because of the [U.S.] sanctions. Under the occupation, it’s worse. We have electricity only two or three hours a day. Sometimes they cut the electricity for several days and nobody knows why. There is no fresh water to drink because of the uranium used by the American forces against Iraq during the 1991 war. The water, the soil, the atmosphere are all contaminated. We have many different kinds of cancer because of the uranium. There is no fuel. We usually have to stand on line for hours and hours, to get only 20 liters or less. We pay the official price of 400 dinars per liter. But Iraqis, especially taxi drivers, are buying it on the black market and paying as much as 40,000 dinars. Everything is very expensive. There is no daily life. We are just surviving.

What are the feelings of Iraqi people towards Kuwaitis, Syrians, the Turks?

NERMIN: The Iraqis feel very alone. They feel helpless. No Arab leader tried to help, but, left us in the hands of the occupying forces. Our Arab brothers and sisters are silent, even the Arab League. Kuwait was the gate for the invasion forces. The whole world knows that when Saddam entered Kuwait, even the Minister of Defense didn’t know. Just he, his two sons, and Chemical Ali (Ali Abdel Majeed). It was not the Iraqis’ fault.

Are there people in Iraq who wish that the Saddam days didn’t end?

IMAM HUSAINY: Among the Shi’a and the Kurdish, you will never hear: “We wish Saddam was back.” Another danger is here. If the coalition is not going to be wise, guess what the alternative is going to be? Just like in Lebanon: civil war. I hope that by July, the power will be transferred to the Iraqis and there are elections. Without elections, there will be an explosion. Maybe civil war, God forbid.

The Capture of Saddam

What was it like for you to see Saddam on television after his capture?

NERMIN: I cried because we have young Iraqi martyrs. My schoolmates, who graduated with me in 1982, all my friends from that time were killed in the war. Two million Iraqis killed in the war. Another two million handicapped, and four million sick because of the sanctions and because of Saddam. My generation postponed its dreams just to protect Iraq. All of a sudden, my son, my dreams, 23 years of my life, my friends who were killed in the frontline of the war, every peaceful aspect of our lives were lost because of Saddam. He always used to have a pistol with him, even during prayer, so why didn’t he commit suicide?

IMAM HUSAINY: I was very critical of the coalition but I have no mercy for Saddam. Saddam destroyed Iraq and he handed Iraq to the coalition. I believe he is an agent of America. Who told Saddam to have a war against Iran and kill half a million Iraqis and one million Iranians? ... I don’t believe he’s a Muslim. I’m sorry, I’m a clergyman and I’m responsible for what I’m saying. He killed millions of Muslims and Iraqis. He killed the eight most important clergymen in Iraq. He served the enemies of Iraq more than anybody else. I’m so sorry the Arabs took him as a hero. He was against the Arabs. He was the worst terrorist.

The resistance movement