Iraqi refugee voices: The impossibility of return
Report, Refugees International (Oct 31, 2008)
A single middle-aged woman in Damascus says that her only hope is
resettlement. She is willing to go anywhere, although she, like most
Iraqis, has many questions about what life is like in some of the
resettlement countries. She came to Syria after her parents were
kidnapped and killed in Iraq. She says that she would be killed if she
returned; in any case, her house was burned down so she would have
nowhere to go.
Photo Diary: Iraqis advocating nonviolence hold events all over Iraq
La'Onf, Electronic Iraq (Oct 24, 2008)
La'Onf is an organization in Iraq that doesn't make headlines in the United States. It's members advocate for nonviolence and they've been organizing in Iraq's most deadly neighborhoods and cities. The organization just held its third annual Week of Nonviolence in Iraq. Here are a few photos.
"There is no reason at all to be afraid in this place."
Basim al-Shara', Institue for War and Peace Reporting (Feb 4, 2008)
"I was riding the bus home from work, staring out the window as we crossed
the bustling al-Sinek Bridge in central Baghdad. The bridge runs over
the Tigris River, and I noticed that convoys of four-wheel drive
vehicles were crossing in the wrong direction. Just then, my mobile phone rang and a number I did not know appeared on the screen."
Life after the "Islamic State"
An IWPR contributor in Baghdad, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (Jan 8, 2008)
An Iraqi woman whose name has been withheld for security reasons writes from Baghdad about her neighborhood's recent experiences of sectarian violence, her hopes, and her concerns for the future.
"Last week I returned..."
Anonymous, Institue for War and Peace Reporting (Dec 14, 2007)
"From the moment I left Baghdad, I yearned for my homeland. I was filled
with hope that I would one day return to the city of my childhood and
all of my memories. Last week, encouraged by my family's reports that the situation was improving, I returned."
Bloggers Without Borders
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning (Oct 23, 2007)
Syria is a beautiful country--at least I think it is. I say 'I think'
because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I
mistake safety, security and normalcy for 'beauty'. In so many ways,
Damascus is like Baghdad before the war--bustling streets, occasional
traffic jams, markets seemingly always full of shoppers...And in so
many ways it's different. The buildings are higher, the streets are
generally narrower and there's a mountain, Qasiyoun, that looms in the
distance.
The Prisoner of Three Prisons
Noah Baker Merrill, Electronic Iraq (Aug 14, 2007)
Electronic Iraq Amman correspondent Noah Baker Merrill profiles an Iraqi man stuck in a Jordanian prison while he waits for the UN to resettle him. 'Iraqis here in Jordan describe Iraq as a prison where hope cannot
enter,' writes Merrill. 'They speak of Jordan as another kind of prison where they hope
and pray to leave these years of living in limbo behind them. Saad
knows the inside of each of these prisons well. And he knows this third
kind of prison, Juweideh Prison, even better.'
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