Both my parents are Iraqi Arabs from Baghdad. They escaped Iraq in the early 90s during Saddam's infamous Faith Campaign, where both my relatively leftist dad and my shia mother both fell under some prosecution. They left to Syria and then got resettled in the US thanks to a UN program. I speak fluent Arabic and meet up every year with my extended family in Jordan or Turkey, as both countries are relatively safe for Iraqis.

AMA about Iraqi politics, Iraqi society and the general cultural and political state of the Arab World. I will answer a few questions directly, but I'll keep the rest for late night today as I will go on a long ass drive in an hour.

  • Sankara [he/him,any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Have you ever been to old Samarra? The mosque is beautiful and it’s the best preserved ancient city in the world.

    Actually not, Samarra is in a weird place security-wise but I would definitely visit when the time is right.

    Also for people like your parents who obviously hate Saddam, how do they view the US invasion to oust him?

    That's another complicated situation, as it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that on the day of the Fall of Baghdad, almost every Iraqi felt relief. At the time, the invasion was seen almost as necessary evil, which needed to happen in order to remove the bigger evil. A few weeks later, when the atrocities and the pure war crimes started to appear clearly, the concept of lesser evil definitely vanished and the invasion is now purely viewed as something that shouldn't have happened.