Download or read book IraqiGirl Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq written by IraqiGirl and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2017-01-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I feel that I have been sleeping all my life and I have woken up and opened my eyes to the world. A beautiful world! But impossible to live in. These are the words of fifteen-year-old Hadiya, blogging from the city of Mosul, Iraq, to let the world know what life is really like as the military occupation of her country unfolds. In many ways, her life is familiar. She worries about exams and enjoys watching Friends during the rare hours that the electricity in her neighborhood is running. But the horrors of war surround her everywhere—weeklong curfews, relatives killed, and friends whose families are forced to flee their homes. With black humor and unflinching honesty, Hadiya shares the painful stories of lives changed forever. “Let’s go back,” she writes, “to my un-normal life.” With her intimate reflections on family, friendship, and community, IraqiGirl also allows us to witness the determination of one girl not only to survive, but to create, amidst the devastation of war, a future worth living for. "Hadiya's authentically teenage voice, emotional struggles and concerns make her story all the more resonant." —Publishers Weekly “Despite all the news coverage about the war in Iraq, very little is reported about how it affects the daily lives of ordinary citizens. A highschooler in the city of Mosul fills in the gap with this compilation of her blog posts about living under U.S. occupation. She writes in English because she wants to reach Americans, and in stark specifics, she records the terrifying dangers of car bombs on her street and American warplanes overhead, as well as her everyday struggles to concentrate on homework when there is no water and electricity at home. Her tone is balanced: she does not hate Americans, and although she never supported Saddam Hussein, she wonders why he was executed... Readers will appreciate the details about family, friends, school, and reading Harry Potter, as well as the ever-present big issues for which there are no simple answers." —Hazel Rochman, Booklist “IraqiGirl has poured reflections of her daily life into her blog, reaching all over the cyber-world from her home in northern Iraq. She writes about the universals of teen life—school, family, TV, food, Harry Potter—but always against the background of sudden explosions, outbursts of gunfire, carbombs, death.… [A]n important addition to multicultural literature.” —Elsa Marston, author of Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories About Teens in the Arab World “A book as relevant to adults as teenagers and children. Hadiya’s clear, simple language conveys the feelings of a teenager, offering a glimpse into the daily life of a professional middle-class Iraqi family in an ancient-modern city subjected to a brutal occupation.” —Haifa Zangana, author of City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance

Download or read book Baghdad Burning written by Riverbend and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2005-04-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the fall of Bagdad, women’s voices have been largely erased, but four months after Saddam Hussein’s statue fell, a 24 year-old woman from Baghdad began blogging. In 2003, a twenty-four-year-old woman from Baghdad began blogging about life in the city under the pseudonym Riverbend. Her passion, honesty, and wry idiomatic English made her work a vital contribution to our understanding of post-war Iraq—and won her a large following. Baghdad Burning is a quotidian chronicle of Riverbend’s life with her family between April 2003 and September of 2004. She describes rolling blackouts, intermittent water access, daily explosions, gas shortages and travel restrictions. She also expresses a strong stance against the interim government, the Bush administration, and Islamic fundamentalists like Al Sadr and his followers. Her book “offers quick takes on events as they occur, from a perspective too often overlooked, ignored or suppressed” (Publishers Weekly). “Riverbend is bright and opinionated, true, but like all voices of dissent worth remembering, she provides an urgent reminder that, whichever governments we struggle under, we are all the same.” —Booklist “Feisty and learned: first-rate reading for any American who suspects that Fox News may not be telling the whole story.” —Kirkus

Download or read book Black Hearts written by Jim Frederick and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-02-09 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Riveting. . . a testament to a misconceived war, and to the ease with which ordinary men, under certain conditions, can transform into monsters.”—New York Times Book Review This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as “the Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’s so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country’s most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon—1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion—descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War—the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost—one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives. Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century.

Download or read book Women and Gender in Iraq written by Zahra Ali and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highlighting Iraqi women's voices, this is an examination of women, gender and feminisms in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.

Download or read book The Last Girl written by Nadia Murad and published by Crown. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE • In this “courageous” (The Washington Post) memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. Today, Nadia's story—as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi—has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.

Download or read book A Brave Face written by Barbara Marlowe and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspirational story of an American woman who moved mountains to secure medical treatments—and eventually a home—for a young Iraqi girl severely burned in a roadside terror attack. This is a story of the astonishing power of self-sacrificial love. On a typical Sunday morning in 2006, Barbara Marlowe saw a photo that changed her life: a photo of four-year-old Teeba Furat Fadhil, whose face, head, and hands had been severely burned during a roadside bombing in the Diyala Province of Iraq. Teeba’s eyes captivated Barbara, and she yearned to help this child who had already endured more pain and suffering than anyone should bear. Because surgeons were fleeing the war-torn country, Teeba would be unable to receive much-needed treatments if she stayed in Iraq. With powerful faith and determination, Barbara overcame obstacle after obstacle to bring Teeba from Iraq to the United States for medical treatments. A Brave Face explores the connection forged between Barbara and Teeba’s Iraqi mother Dunia over the past decade—a deep bond between two mothers that has flourished despite the distance, the strife of war, and the horrors of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. With chapters written by Teeba, now a young woman, and Dunia, the three women recount the story of courage and sacrifice that bound them together. A Brave Face contains the messages that: Tremendous trust can cross borders and war zones Tragedies can turn into miracles Love can be found in the most unexpected of places In the end, this is a story of hope. A story of building bridges. A story of the always astonishing power of self-sacrificial love.

Download or read book Sisters in War written by Christina Asquith and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-05-11 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Caught up in a terrifying war, facing choices of life and death, two Iraqi sisters take us into the hidden world of women’s lives under U.S. occupation. Through their powerful story of love and betrayal, interwoven with the stories of a Palestinian American women’s rights activist and a U.S. soldier, journalist Christina Asquith explores one of the great untold sagas of the Iraq war: the attempt to bring women’s rights to Iraq, and the consequences for all those involved. On the heels of the invasion, twenty-two-year-old Zia accepts a job inside the U.S. headquarters in Baghdad, trusting that democracy will shield her burgeoning romance with an American contractor from the disapproval of her fellow Iraqis. But as resistance to the U.S. occupation intensifies, Zia and her sister, Nunu, a university student, are targeted by Islamic insurgents and find themselves trapped between their hopes for a new country and the violent reality of a misguided war. Asquith sets their struggle against the broader U.S. efforts to bring women’s rights to Iraq, weaving the sisters’ story with those of Manal, a Palestinian American women’s rights activist, and Heather, a U.S. army reservist, who work together to found Iraq’s first women’s center. After one of their female colleagues is gunned down on a highway, Manal and Heather must decide whether they can keep fighting for Iraqi women if it means risking their own lives. In Sisters in War, Christina Asquith introduces the reader to four women who dare to stand up for their rights in the most desperate circumstances. With compassion and grace, she vividly reveals the plight of women living and serving in Iraq and offers us a vision of how women’s rights and Islam might be reconciled.

Download or read book Witness Iraq written by Marcel Saba and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documenting the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq from the perspective of some of the world's most renowned and respected photojournalists, Witness Iraq offers an extraordinary first-hand account of this controversial war. Beginning with the assassination attempt of Saddam Hussein and continuing through the massive roll out of tanks and troops in the desert, on to the fight of the Kurds in the North, and culminating in the fall of Baghdad, these images, many never-before-seen, reveal both the horrors of war and the triumph of the human spirit. With 150 full-colour photos.

Download or read book Youngblood written by Matt Gallagher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An urgent and deeply moving novel” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) about a young American soldier struggling to find meaning during the final, dark days of the War in Iraq. The US military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles to accept how it’s happening—through alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupted by the arrival of veteran Sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked hard to establish. As Iraq plunges back into chaos and bloodshed and Chambers’s influence over the men grows stronger, Jack becomes obsessed with a strange, tragic tale of reckless love between a lost American soldier and Rana, a local sheikh’s daughter. In search of the truth and buoyed by the knowledge that what he finds may implicate Sergeant Chambers, Jack seeks answers from the enigmatic Rana, and soon their fates become intertwined. Determined to secure a better future for Rana and a legitimate and lasting peace for her country, Jack will defy American command, putting his own future in grave peril. For fans of Phil Klay’s Redeployment or Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Youngblood provides startling new dimension to both the moral complexity of war and its psychological toll.

Download or read book Moment of Truth in Iraq written by Michael Yon and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Internationally acclaimed for his vivid shocking and intimate coverage, no reporter knows the battle zones of Iraq better than Michael Yon. The former Green Beret has been getting into the thick of it for years. Now Yon tells the true story of the surge --the last ditch effort of American and Iraqi soldiers to snatch Iraq back from the abyss. Yon has never been co-opted by Left or Right, Military or Media. In 2005, Yon was the first battlefield reporter to write that Iraq was spiraling into civil war. The fighting officers and soldiers Yon covers know this former Green Beret stands with them. Our soldiers lead him to

Download or read book Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories about Teens in the Arab World written by Elsa Marston and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it like to be a young person in the Arab world today? This lively collection of eight short stories about Arab teenagers living in Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and a Palestinian refugee camp engagingly depicts young people's experiences growing up in the Middle East. The characters, drawn from urban and rural settings and from different classes as well as a mix of countries, confront situations involving friends, family, teachers, and society at large. Along with some specifically Middle Eastern issues, such as strife in Iraq, the hardships of life in a Palestinian refugee camp, and honor crimes, the young people deal with more familiar concerns such as loyalty to friends, overcoming personal insecurities, dreams of a future career, and coping with divorcing parents. Coming of age in a complicated world, they meet life with courage, determination, and, not least of all, humor. With accompanying notes that provide contextual information, Santa Claus in Baghdad brings a fresh perspective to youth literature about the Arab world.

Download or read book The Baghdad Clock written by Shahad Al Rawi and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A HEART-RENDING TALE OF TWO GIRLS GROWING UP IN WAR-TORN BAGHDAD Baghdad, 1991. The Gulf War is raging. Two girls, hiding in an air raid shelter, tell stories to keep the fear and the darkness at bay, and a deep friendship is born. But as the bombs continue to fall and friends begin to flee the country, the girls must face the fact that their lives will never be the same again. This poignant debut novel reveals just what it's like to grow up in a city that is slowly disappearing in front of your eyes, and how in the toughest times, children can build up the greatest resilience.

Download or read book Testament written by Chris Hondros and published by powerHouse Books. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Testament is a collection of photographs and writing by late photojournalist Chris Hondros spanning over a decade of coverage from most of the world's conflicts since the late 1990s, including Kosovo, Afghanistan, the West Bank, Iraq, Liberia, Egypt, and Libya. Through Hondros' images, we witness a jubilant Liberian rebel fighter exalt during a firefight, a U.S. Marine remove Saddam Hussein's portrait from an Iraqi classroom, American troops ride confidently in a thin-skinned unarmored Humvee during the first months of the Iraq war, "the probing eyes of an Afghan village boy," and "rambunctious Iraqi schoolgirls enjoying their precious few years of relative freedom before aging into more restricted adulthoods." Hondros was not just a front-line war photographer, but also a committed observer and witness, and his work humanizes complex world events and brings to light shared human experiences. Evident in his writings, interspersed throughout, Hondros was determined to broaden our understanding of war and its consequences. This unyielding determination led Hondros to take dozens of trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, even as the news turned elsewhere. During these "routine" trips, Hondros examined and observed daily life in these war-torn societies. His inventive Humvee picture series frames the ever-changing landscapes of these countries, offering a glimpse into the daily lives of those most affected by conflict. "One of the ongoing themes in my work, I hope, and one of the things I believe in, is a sense of human nature, a sense of shared humanity above the cultural layers we place on ourselves [which don't] mean that much compared to the human experience." —Chris Hondros As a photographer working in the world's most difficult and dangerous places, Chris Hondros had the distinctive ability to connect his viewers with people embroiled in far-flung and sometimes obscure conflicts. He recognized the shared humanity among those affected by war, regardless of culture or beliefs, and he was determined to share their challenges to the wider world in the hope of provoking thought, raising awareness, and fostering understanding. In the introduction to the book, Getty Images Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Klein writes, "Chris believed that his work could and would make a difference. He dedicated and ultimately lost his life in pursuit of that belief. I have no doubt that Chris was correct. Images can and do influence public opinion, galvanize people and societies, and force governments to change. They bring much-needed focus and attention to the suffering of people who are otherwise unable to communicate their plight." Inspired by his life, work, and vision—The Chris Hondros Fund endeavors to bring light to shared human experiences by supporting and protecting photojournalists. Through their generous support, Getty Images' proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Fund. For more information please visit www.chrishondrosfund.org.

Download or read book Now You re Thinking written by Judy Chartrand and published by FT Press. This book was released on 2011-09-14 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn more with the video links included in this e-book! Want to improve? Want to change? Start inside your own head: You are what you think! Now You’re Thinking will help you build your great life by teaching you breakthrough techniques for thinking far more effectively. Whether you’re considering refinancing your house or trying to become a better parent, some thinking processes are simply proven to work better. Learn them here--right now. Discover how to assess your own thinking style, build on your strengths, fix your weaknesses, navigate tough challenges and moral dilemmas; gain new perspective; think your way to balance and security, and master strategic thinking, in business, and in life! To celebrate the launch of Now You’re Thinking, Pearson people, business partners, and friends have a tremendous opportunity to make a remarkable difference in the lives of the families of those serving the U.S. military. From September 12 through September 30, each time you read a free online children’s book at We Give Books (wegivebooks.org), your efforts will help give a free hardcover or paperback book to great non-profits that support U.S. military families year round. Think. Read. Give.

Download or read book Writing the Modern History of Iraq written by Jordi Tejel and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2012 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern history of Iraq is punctuated by a series of successive and radical ruptures (coups d'etat, changes of regime, military adventures and foreign invasions) whose chronological markers are relatively easy to identify. Although researchers cannot ignore these ruptures, they should also be encouraged to establish links between the moments when the breaks occur and the longue durée, in order to gain a better understanding of the period.Combining a variety of different disciplinary and methodological perspectives, this collection of essays seeks to establish some new markers which will open fresh perspectives on the history of Iraq in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and suggest a narrative that fits into new paradigms. The book covers the various different periods of the modern state (the British occupation and mandate, the monarchy, the first revolutions and the decades of Ba'thist rule) through the lens of significant groups in Iraq society, including artists, film-makers, political and opposition groups, members of ethnic and religious groups, and tribes.

Download or read book Sweet Relief written by Jennifer Abrahamson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-10-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweet Relief is the remarkable story of how twenty-eight-year-old Marla Ruzicka took on the US government, changed the world, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Marla Ruzicka was a free spirit, a savvy political operator, a wartime Erin Brockovich. Fiercely determined to improve the lives of the less fortunate, the twenty-something blonde was instrumental in convincing the U.S. government to pass historic legislation aiding civilian victims of war. Sweet Relief recounts Marla's journey from an idyllic childhood in a small California town, through Latin America and Africa, and finally to the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Whether she was Rollerblading the halls of Congress to secure funds for civilians in Iraq or throwing parties for journalists in Kabul to raise awareness of her cause, no one who came within a hundred yards of Marla missed her. Her friendly smile and indefatigable pose were ubiquitous in Afghanistan and Iraq where Marla managed a door-to-door effort to identify war victims. While Marla worked tirelessly to care for others, in many ways she neglected herself. A diagnosed manic-depressive, Marla battled extreme emotional lows and an eating disorder. And although she brought love into the homes of the aggrieved, she often struggled to find a love of her own. Marla gave the invisible victims of war a voice and, in the process, helped to win them millions of dollars in unprecedented aid. Tragically, Marla was killed by a suicide bomber on Airport Road in Iraq in April 2005. Weeks later, the US government named the program she fought so hard to establish The Marla Ruzicka Fund. Her life and legacy are an inspiring reminder that love and determination can conquer all.

Download or read book In Her Feminine Sign written by Dunya Mikhail and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant poetic exploration of language and gender, place, and time, seen through the mirror of exile In Her Feminine Sign follows on the heels of Dunya Mikhail's devastating account of Daesh kidnappings and killings of Yazidi women in Iraq, The Beekeeper. It is the first book she has written in both Arabic and English, a process she talks about in her preface, saying "The poet is at home in both texts, yet she remains a stranger." With a subtle simplicity and disquieting humor reminiscent of Wislawa Szymborska and an unadorned lyricism wholly her own, Mikhail shifts between her childhood in Baghdad and her present life in Detroit, between Ground Zero and a mass grave, between a game of chess and a flamingo. At the heart of the book is the symbol of the tied circle, the Arabic suffix taa-marbuta—a circle with two dots above it that determines a feminine word, or sign. This tied circle transforms into the moon, a stone that binds friendship, birdsong over ruins, three kidnapped women, and a hymn to Nisaba, the goddess of writing. A section of "Iraqi haiku" unfolds like Sumerian symbols carved onto clay tablets, transmuted into the stuff of our ordinary, daily life. In another poem, Mikhail defines the Sumerian word for freedom, Ama-ar-gi, as "what seeps out / from the dead into our dreams."