DAMASCUS - An Iraqi friend was trying to
make the best out of misfortune, saying that when
electricity goes off in Baghdad, Iraqis react by
smiling, saying that it is a golden opportunity
for them to watch the stars glimmer in the sky
above Baghdad.
This anecdote is
melancholic, just like everything about Iraq: its
humor, music, poetry, wars, and the look in the
eyes of the people after so many years of bad
leadership, corruption and war.
Some
Iraqis, such as Safia al-Suhayl (40), the
ambassador to Egypt, insist on defying this
melancholy and look ahead with high
spirits. From where they
stood under Saddam Hussein, there is nowhere left
to go but up. Her story is in sharp contrast to
that of another woman, Sajida al-Rishawi (35), who
was apprehended earlier this month after trying to
blow up a hotel in Amman, Jordan, with her
husband.
An elegant and educated Iraqi
Shi'ite married to a Kurd, Suhayl wants to enter
the parliamentary race in December, and dreams of
becoming the first woman president of her country.
Ironically, her story and that of Rishawi were
both born out of suffering and tragedy. They took
different paths, however, with Suhayl becoming a
democracy advocate and Rishawi a suicide bomber.
Suhayl, an anti-Saddam activist, was
invited to Washington in February by President
George W Bush to attend his state of the union
speech. She made headlines there by embracing
Janet Norwood, the mother of an American soldier
killed in Iraq. Bush acknowledged her as one of
Iraq's "leading democracy and human-rights
advocates" and spoke of her father, Sheikh Taleb
al-Suhayl, who was killed on orders from Saddam
while in exile in Beirut in April 1994.
Suhayl has many reasons to look forward to
a better Iraq. With Saddam behind bars, she feels
that the murder of her father has been somewhat
avenged. Her political and feminist aspirations
are being realized, although slowly, through
greater participation of women in political life.
A major setback in the minds of liberal Iraqis
like Suhayl, however, is the fact that secularism,
enjoyed under Saddam, has disappeared from Iraq
and the new constitution gives predominance to
Islamic law, which they consider unjust for Muslim
women on issues such as divorce and inheritance.
Suhayl is a good example of courageous
Iraqi women who insist on building a society that
is more free and just for the Iraqi people.
Rishawi is the exact opposite, insisting on a
society that is plagued by religious
fundamentalism and backwardness. In between the
two women stand the rest of the Iraqi people who
are uncertain of what they want Iraq to become.
The inspirational case of Suhayl can serve
as an example that all is not lost in Iraq.
Reconciliation conference The
grievances of Suhayl and other Iraqis were partly
addressed at a reconciliation conference held over
three days this week in Cairo under the auspices
of the Arab League. The conference included all
parties in the Iraqi political arena, except the
Ba'athists of Saddam, Sunni insurgents, and, of
course, followers of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq,
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The assembled delegates
promised security, independence and reconciliation
in Iraq. They also asked for a timetable for the
withdrawal of multinational troops once Iraq's own
military was able to take control of the country.
But such resolutions have a hollow ring to
them. They will not have an influence on the
political or military arena in Iraq since the
"troublemakers" were not permitted to attend. In
effect, the assembled politicians, all from the
same group of "cooperative Iraqis" who are
partners in power, were able to reconcile issues
among themselves but not with those creating havoc
in Iraq.
The main goal of the conference,
however, was to call for another gathering in
Baghdad with a broader reconciliation objective,
in February or March next year. This time, the
leaders of the Sunni and Shi'ite insurgency, as
well as the Ba'athists, will be invited.
The fact that at the Cairo meeting a broad
range of Shi'ites, Kurds and Sunnis were able to
meet and issue a joint statement, after
parliamentary elections had ripped them apart in
January, was in itself an achievement for Iraq.
In wrapping up the conference, President
Jalal Talabani called for dialogue with the
insurgents. He has realized that neither fighting
them nor turning a blind eye to them will not make
them go away. "If those who describe themselves as
the Iraqi resistance want to contact me, they are
welcome," Talabani said. He said that as
president, he was responsible for all Iraqis, not
only the Kurds that he represents, and that he was
willing to listen to everyone, "even the
criminals".
Reports about contacts between
the insurgency and Talabani surfaced in June with
comments by US Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, only to be denied at the time by the
Iraqi government. At a later stage, authorities
said that they would talk with the rebels, but
only those who would lay down their arms and those
who had not killed Iraqi citizens.
Even as
the leaders met in Cairo, though, a series of
attacks rocked Iraq, adding pressure on Talabani
and Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. On November
19, an attack killed 30 Iraqis, followed by
another 35 in a car bomb during a Shi'ite funeral
near Baquba. A second car bomb at a crowded market
in Baghdad killed another 13.
The
Iranian role in post-Saddam Iraq Iraq's
ongoing problems and never-ending violence have
led to calls for the resignation of Jaafari. A
survey conducted in Iraq shows that 67% of Iraqis
are not pleased with Jaafari's efforts in fighting
terrorism and bringing security to Iraq. Another
74% view his efforts in combating corruption as
futile. And 94% say that Jaafari has failed to
solve the problem of electricity shortages, while
77% say he is not doing enough about unemployment.
As moves to bring Jaafari down grow,
triggered by his predecessor in the premiership,
Iyad Allawi, the mullahs in Tehran have become
concerned. They played host to Jaafari during the
years of Saddam's dictatorship and invested
greatly in him, and several other Iraqi leaders,
all of whom returned to positions of power after
Saddam's ousting in 2003.
Significantly,
Talabani went to Tehran right after the Cairo
conference, becoming the first Iraqi president to
do so in 40 years. Iranian President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad promised Talabani full cooperation in
Iraq, stressing that he wanted a united, advanced
and independent Iraq to flourish.
Most
non-Shi'ites, Talabani included, do not really
believe him. Nor does the United States. The
Iraqis and Americans have accused Iran of
supporting the Shi'ite insurgency in southern
Iraq, headed by the young Muqtada al-Sadr,
something which is quite baseless because it is
not in Iran's interests to have a turbulent Iraq
now that Tehran's friends are in power. Also, if
Iran were to back or finance anybody, it would be
its strongman, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, and not his
main rival in Shiite politics, Muqtada.
The Supreme Council for the Iraqi
Revolution, headed by Hakim, was based in Iran for
many years. It received money, coverage and
logistic support from the mullahs there. Iran has
used the group to intervene in Iraqi politics
after the fall of Saddam.
They
wholeheartedly backed Hakim's demand for Shi'ite
autonomy in southern Iraq after the Kurds obtained
it in Iraqi Kurdistan. The al-Malaf website
claimed to have obtained important documents that
disclose Iranian intelligence intervention in
Iraq, which contradict Ahmadinejad's promises to
Talabani.
The documents speak about the
role played by Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Shi'ite
Badr Brigade (the pro-Iran Shi'ite militia) in
destabilizing Iraq and eliminating all opponents
of Shi'ite autonomy in the south. Ameri is
connected to the Iranian Quds Brigade and worked
with the Shi'ite opposition in the early 1980s. He
was forced to flee, first to Syria and then to
Iran, when Saddam increased his persecution of
Shi'ites. He holds an Iranian passport and his
wife is Iranian.
According to the
documents, several organizations, including the
Badr and Quds brigades, met in Iraq in July and
drafted a list of people they were to assassinate,
under orders from Iran, because they opposed the
Iranian project in Iraq. The list included Hazem
al-Shaalan and Allawi. Two members of the
constitutional assembly, Dr Megbel Sheikh Issa and
Dr Kamel Obaidi, were actually assassinated on
July 19 because they had lobbied against Shi'ite
federation plans, claiming that if this happened,
southern Iraq would become an Iranian province.
The documents also reveal another powerful
figure in Iraq, an Iranian-funded Shi'ite leader,
Abu Mustapha al-Sheibani. He is neither a
Ba'athist nor a member of al-Qaeda. According to
Time magazine, he leads a network of insurgents
that is both founded and funded by Iran and whose
main purpose is to carry out attacks against the
Americans in Iraq.
According to the Time
report, his group consists of 280 members, divided
into 17 death squads. The US says that they
sometimes train in Lebanon, with the help of
Hezbollah, but mainly in Sadr City, a vast slum of
Shi'ite inhabitants in Baghdad that is
overwhelmingly loyal to Muqtada.
Regardless of all these problems,
optimists like envoy Suhayl insist on having a
better future.
Polish journalist Adam
Michnik once wrote: "As a rule, dictatorships
guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell.
In democracy, the streets may be unsafe after
dark, but the most likely visitor in the early
hours will be the milkman."
That is very
true in post-Saddam Iraq; there is no terror of
the doorbell. Despite all the bombing, the
violence of the insurgency and the ethnic
divisions, someone like Suhayl is still determined
to see the best in her emerging country. While
many only see the darkness, she sees the stars in
the skies of Baghdad.
Sami Moubayed
is a Syrian political analyst.
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