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 Life interrupted . . .
With the Internet, we are now able to read accounts of war by noncombatants who are not journalists - while the war is happening, even as armies invade and bombs fall. Someone has called Iraq the first postmodern war in that we get simultaneous reports of what is happening from many different points of view besides the "official" ones. This remarkable blog by a young woman in Baghdad is a day-by-day record of the experience of the war in her city - and told from the perspective of someone not unlike her Western readers (so convincingly that some readers consider her blog a hoax). She writes fluent English and is familiar with American culture; she is educated, urbane, politically informed, and computer savvy (having worked at a software company before the war - a job that was lost at least in part because she is a woman in a rising tide of fundamentalist sentiment). Most of all, she demolishes any stereotypes of Iraqis that Westerners might have - stereotypes that often serve to justify the war itself.
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br /In the 13 months covered in this published volume of her blog, we see the American invasion become an occupation, and the initial sporadic resistance to it evolve into a widespread insurgency with a mounting death toll. The focus, unlike news coverage, is on the casualties among noncombatants, and we are reminded on nearly every page of what it is like to live life literally "under the gun." And in a city where law and order are up for grabs, citizens must arm themselves for protection, while running the risk of being taken for "terrorists" because they are armed. Added to that, there are daily explosions, kidnappings, home invasions, and the continuing problem of power shortages. Meanwhile, the TV and internet news reveal the blunders of the American authorities and the follies of a do-nothing, American-installed provisional government. Then we hear again of the siege of Fallujah, with its staggering loss of civilian life, and finally the humiliations on all sides of the photos released from Abu Ghraib. Most poignant and disturbing is her retelling of the 1991 Amiriyah Shelter massacre, in which 400 women and children were killed by an American missile during the Gulf War.
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br /There is understandably a lot of anger in this book. While certainly justified - often even restrained and measured - the book avoids becoming an endless and wearying diatribe. The mood modulates among a range of emotions and attitudes. We are treated at times to interesting descriptions of Iraqi culture, accounts of daily routines (like filling the water tank on the roof), and reports, laced with irony, of the laughable incompetence of appointed public officials, plus rejoinders to readers who have sent her emails revealing their own ignorance. Finally, the book is a record of clinging to sanity in a world gone very wrong. For those who support the war, don't support it, or are indifferent about it, it's important to read for what it has to say about the impact of foreign policy decisions on those whose lives are - through no fault of their own - suddenly in harm's way.
Great blog
I really liked that this was a real blog, I can't wait to read the next one. Riverbend does talk alot about politics in the book and I am not real good w/ politics so I was having a hard time following it all and those parts were kinda boring me to death, so I skipped around alot. What I was hoping to read more of was her daily life, what she does around the house or outside or where ever. Just what HER day to day life is like during the war. But even though I had to skip around alot, I absolutely love the book. Her blog is so long I have alot of catching up to do. I hope they put her whole blog into books, its so much easier to take it everywhere or even in bed than be stuck at a computer reading it.
 Clearly written by an American, NOT Iraqi
I have been to Iraq (recently)and e-mail daily with many Iraqis. This blog was NOT written by a genuine Iraqi girl. My suspicion is that it was written by someone from the US who is/was over there. There is a cadence in the writing of Arabs writing English that this blog totally lacks. Her opinion are those of what an American (probably living in the Green Zone) thinks Iraqi girls should write. I have never heard any young Iraqi woman (and I know several) who know so little about Iraqi history, Arab culture, Islam etc. Her vocabulary choices are completely wrong for a non-native speaker. I do humanitarian work in Iraq and I agree with many of her sentiments (I hate Bush, the war etc), but I still think this is not what it claims to be. Sadly, people seem to want it to be real, instead of listening to actual Iraqi girls/ women who have more interesting things to say.
A Valuable Window Into Iraq
"When Bush 'brought the war to the terrorists,' he failed to mention he wouldn't be fighting it in some distant mountains or barren deserts: the frontline is our homes, and the 'collateral damage' is our friends and families."
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br /Riverbend, a young Iraqi woman, writes jarring dispatches from her deteriorating city of Baghdad as it descends into the chaos following the 2003 invasion. Her blog, which is clearly aimed at American readers, provides a window into Iraqi life under occupation far beyond the sanitized reports filling our TV screens and newspapers. She describes daily battles we seldom hear about, such as the battle for sleep in the hellish summer heat when the electricity is cut off most of the time; the battle for an education when schools are raided and the country suffers marked 'brain drain' with the flight of many of its intellectuals; the inner battle for the courage to go out shopping after fundamentalist militias begin beating and abducting women. She tells of sleeping in her clothes every night, pockets stuffed with valuables and identification papers...just in case...and the aunt who orders Riverbend's brother to keep watch on the roof while she bathes, because she doesn't want to be caught naked should American troops suddenly burst into their home. Tragedy is always close by, with the abduction of a cousin, arrest of a neighbor, and violent death of another neighbor while visiting relatives.
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br /Riverbend's moving personal narrative is complemented by biting, often witty political commentary and passages from various 'links' on Riverbend's blog. Her depiction of life as an Iraqi woman completely dismantles the claim that the war 'liberated' the country's women, who are now forced to cope with U.S.-backed Shiite fundamentalist militias such as Badir's Brigade, known for terrorizing women who refuse to wear the hijab. As a female, Riverbend is forced to give up a good job as a computer programmer, and watches with dread as the Coalition Provisional Authority installs extremists on the Iraq Governing Council, which she deems "the most elaborate puppet show Iraq has ever seen."
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br /Though her blog paints an ominous picture of the situation in Iraq, Riverbend uplifts her many readers with the very humanness we are so rarely allowed to glimpse through the dehumanizing rhetoric of war. The ability of an ordinary (though in many ways extraordinary) young woman to reach audiences around the world is an inspiring testament to the democratic potential of the dawning Information Age.
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Too bad prowar Americans will be too proud to read this
I have staunchly opposed the invasion of Iraq even before it became a reality, but not even I, with my distate for the neocons and the mockery of America that is George W. Bush, expected this to turn out this poorly. But we only see, for the most part, the bad things when the victims are US - Americans.
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br /I'm so glad this book is out. It shows the reality Iraqis face, and it shows that by and large this immoral war made their lives worse.
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br /To end my review, I'm not surprised some Americans wrote in her blog that she wasn't Iraqi (I guess speaking English makes one NOT non-American?) and one even said that had it been up to him, he would have vaporized Iraq 10 minutes after the WTC fell... this after Bush went on national TV and admitted Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
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