Iraqi bloggers at home and abroad

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/talking_point/6940384.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Several of the Iraqi bloggers featured in previous roundups have left the country.

Here's a snapshot of some of those still writing from inside Iraq - and some of those who have left.

<i>This page contains links to external websites which are not subject to the usual BBC editorial controls.</i>

neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com

Neurotic Iraqi Wife's blog image

<a href="http://neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com/">Neurotic Iraqi Wife</a> is an Iraqi-British woman living and working in the Green Zone. Here's her blog on the most important recent event: Iraq's victory over Saudi Arabia in football's Asian Cup.

Monday, 30 July 2007:

As our team scored its goal, we all started jumping up and down. They all got up from their chairs screaming, shouting, dancing, singing. It was amazing. I cried, I cried for it was extremely emotional. One of the US generals also joined the celebrations.

...It was nice to see everyone enjoying the moment. Everyone, without any exceptions.

In a war-torn country filled with rivers of blood and streets of charred flesh, it was as if God was smiling on us again.

How I wish I was in the Red Zone. How I wish I was amidst all this. The Green Zone came alive, and so did the rest of the country.

nabilsblog.blogspot.com

Nabil arrived in Jordan on July 3

The victory was a rare chance for Iraq's many refugees to forget the violence that drove them out of their country. <a href="http://nabilsblog.blogspot.com/">Nabil</a> is 19. He left Baghdad and arrived in Jordan last month.

Monday, 30 July

You should have seen what happened here in Amman. All the Iraqis went out to the streets in their cars carrying Iraqi flags and singing Iraqi songs, especially the song "Elyoum yomak ya batal", which means "Today is your day, you are a hero".

The feeling we had today will never be forgotten, Iraqis here were all united, there weren't Sunni or Shiite or Kurdish people, they were all Iraqis, just Iraqis.

Saudi people were the best, I really respected them today, they went out in their cars carrying Iraqi flags that said "Iraqi... Iraqi... you deserve it".

It was really a very happy day but the bad thing was the response of the Jordanian authorities.

They started stopping cars and taking Iraqi flags from people. They arrested several people and beat up several guys.

livesstrong.blogspot.com

Sunshine's blog image

<a href="http://livesstrong.blogspot.com/">Sunshine</a> is a 15-year-old girl in Mosul, northern Iraq. For her, the football euphoria wore off too fast.

Friday, 10 August

After we won the game , I hoped that the coming days and months would be peaceful and we would live happily ever after!

The situation now is not good at all... last Thursday, Mama came back from her work, and said three mortars fell on the hospital, there were injured and dead people. It was a horrible day. While she was talking to me about her bad day, her Mom called and said "Aunt Nazly died".

Aunt Nazly's brother came to my grandparents to tell them about his sister. He was shocked and in denial...

They don't have close relatives here, they came from Armenia so many years ago, and both of them are not married.

Grandpa started to call the churches, he didn't find any presbyter, or monk; all of them had been threatened and had left Iraq.

Luckily, Grandma found a 75-year-old female relative. She came after a few hours with a young monk. He took Aunt Nazly alone, to the Armenian cemetery in Baquba.

This fabulous woman who dedicated her life to serving the community and was loved by everyone, didn't have the funeral she deserved. She was a nurse and had saved many souls.

[They find her elderly brother died later that day].

Berg and Nazly were my grandparents' neighbours for more than 40 years, so it was very hard for them to lose them both in one day.

The neighbours who kept cooking and taking care of them before they died were Muslims (Sunnis and Shiites) as well as Christians. What you hear about the fight among the castes is not true, the citizens don't do that (only the politicians as I believe).

PLEASE the last thing I need is someone to argue with me and tell me the war is for our own good, because I live in Iraq and I can tell you, we had a better life...

astarfrommosul.blogspot.com

<a href="http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/">"Aunt Najma"</a> is also in Mosul. She is 19 and has sailed through her first year university exams. She describes the family holiday to Syria.

Saturday, 4 August 2007:

It was fun there, especially meeting my aunt and uncle's families who have been living in the United Arab Emirates and have come to Syria to see us.

We were six different families. Four stayed in one apartment, and the other two in another.

We saw the celebrations of our triumph in football... The celebrations were very big. People carrying Iraqi flags walked in the streets shouting and singing and kissing the flag. It almost made me cry. It felt like winning would solve it all, we'd finally get to be happy and live like other people, but it wasn't the case of course.

...The thought of coming back to Iraq didn't seem too depressing for me when we were in Aleppo. I had spent two weeks in Syria and missed my laptop, mobile, bed and bathroom really badly.

...The road to Mosul and the first few neighbourhoods were devastated: ruins everywhere, the walls of the houses had way too many bullet holes, there were the remains of bombed-out cars and the street was very damaged. Yet all I wanted was to get home.

last-of-iraqis.blogspot.com

<a href="http://last-of-iraqis.blogspot.com/">Mohammed</a> is a 25-year-old dentist in Baghdad. His attempt at a summer holiday was less successful; he and his wife were denied entry to Jordan. He describes their 24 hours in Amman's Queen Alia International Airport.

Thursday, 9 August 2007:

... an officer came to us and told us that we weren't going to enter Amman. He spoke in a most humiliating way, and walked off. I tried to talk to him but he closed the door in my face.

Mohammed and his wife were denied entry to Jordan

I was so angry at the way he treated us. We are locked in a small room now, and my wife is scared of enclosed places.

... After an hour of my wife crying... another humiliating officer talked to us like we were dogs. "Get the hell out of here, and go to that room," he pointed. We saw a dirty corridor with blankets and 3 small rooms. "You will sleep the night here."

He pushed all of us and locked the door. I wanted to kill him for humiliating us.

Why does everyone treat Iraqis like this? We are humans, we aren't aliens, we are not animals to be put in jail for no crime.

twentyfourstepstoliberty.blogspot.com

<a href="http://twentyfourstepstoliberty.blogspot.com/">Twentyfourstepstoliberty</a> is a young Iraqi man studying journalism in Berkeley, California.

Sunday, 5 August 2007:

The situation in Iraq has become so violent and out of control that the government is not even trying to cover it up.

Iraqis have become such an unwanted breed around the world that the prime minister himself felt no shame admitting it that he gave the members of the Iraqi National Team diplomatic passport to reward them for winning the Asian Cup.

It is clear evidence and a huge slap in the face for average Iraqis that the PM publicly rewards the "Lions of Mesopotamia" by giving them the freedom to travel.

Did it occur to the Iraqi government that the red passports holders are never coming back to Iraq?

<a class="bodl" href="/1/hi/talking_point/6612983.stm">Read the previous Iraqi blog round-up</a>