This morning while I was making some tea for breakfast, my landlord’s copy of Time magazine drew my attention. The issue was a special edition that presented the world’s 100 most influential figures. As I was leafing through the magazine, I saw that an Iraqi woman was considered one of those influential figures. Seeing this made my day. It left me with a sense of optimism that despite all the horror Iraqis are going through under occupation and terrorism, there are people like this woman whose efforts are like bricks rebuilding what was destroyed.
By Queen Rania
It's not every day that success stories echo out of Iraq into the halls of power, but Madeeha Hasan Odhaib defies the norm. Armed with her sewing machine, unflinching stoicism and determination, Madeeha, 37, is mending the fabric of Iraq.
Four years ago, this mother of two and seamstress turned district council member took three sewing machines, leveraged them into 60 and built a business sewing hospital sheets and flags. She now employs 100 women. That figure may seem insignificant compared with the accomplishments of other achievers on TIME's list. But in a country with more than 60% unemployment and rampant poverty, such efforts provide a lifeline. Each woman Madeeha employs returns home with an invaluable sense of self-respect, money in her purse, food for her children and optimism for a daughter desperately seeking a role model amid mayhem. Madeeha also treads—or, rather, threads—the line between activism and heroism. She has coordinated with the Red Crescent, Red Cross, Hands of Mercy and Iraqi army to distribute food around Baghdad. And despite threats, she says she'll never give up.
Iraq is suffering one of the worst humanitarian crises we have ever seen. While Madeeha rightly makes Time's list, women like her are found throughout Iraq, sewing hope one stitch at a time. Through Madeeha, we celebrate all of Iraq's courageous women, whose resilience and resourcefulness hold the promise of a new dawn.
Queen Rania of Jordan is a champion of women's rights in the Middle East
As I was flipping through the TV channels last night, I saw a 6abc report about Iraq. The report was not about Iraqi people; it was about Iraqi stray dogs.
The anchors of the five-minute report called its subject "an extraordinary story." Stray dogs are being flown from Iraq by airplanes to the U.S. to be adopted by U.S. military servicemen and women, and sometimes by the private security contractors whom we all know how they behave with humans in Iraq. Each dog brought costs the U.S. $1,200. The military men and women do not have to pay for that. Volunteers from across the U.S. donate hundreds of dollars to save these pups.
By the time millions of Iraqi civilians have become refugees inside and outside Iraq, the perpetrators of the war have the guts to show up on TV and say they are paying thousands of dollars to save some stray dogs. Instead of helping those who were affected by their war, the Americans are helping cats and dogs. I wonder how those who worked for the Americans and risked their lives without any appreciation would feel after seeing this “operation”!
The report did not only belittle the feeling of suffering Iraqis, it also provided Americans with false information and facts about how dogs are treated in Iraq. The female anchor proudly and sadly said, “[Iraqi] children are taught that animals are dangerous.” It is such an outrageous lie. Yes, I didn’t have a pet at home, but many of my friends and relatives did. My parents, for instance, had never ever taught me to hate or abuse an animal. In schools under Saddam, we were taught that we should not harm animals and should always be compassionate to them, because that’s what Islam teaches. The other lie was that there are little veterinaries in Iraq. Oh! I wonder how we have our dogs and cats and other animals vaccinated then?! They might even think in a mosque or in tent in the desert. Oh, they might even think we didn’t have tap water to clean them with and that we wash them in the Tigris!
This was really outrageous. Shame on abc and their local crew in Philadelphia for not checking facts. The American media keeps deceiving its own people with things that have no relativity to reality. Now they reached farther than deception. They are belittling the feelings of the millions of people suffering under their occupation.
And you tax payers, go save the next stray dog and let human beings die in hundreds. Good for you. Good for America.
Aljazeera’s Sami Alhajj is finally released. It’s the second good news I heard this month. The first one was the release of Bilal Hussein, the Associated Press cameraman. Alhajj and Hussein were detained by the U.S. government for six and two years of ordeal, respectively without any charges.
