Jordan Day 7 (Tuesday)
We went back to see Claudia Lefko at the children's art school and she let us pick a few pieces of art by Iraqi children to bring back to the States, along with some literature about joint art projects with U.S. children.
Next we met up with Zahra at her apartment where she had arranged for four refugees to come by and talk to us. Our first visitor used the name "Nada" (and I should make it clear that everyone we have interviewed picked a name to be known by, not necessarily their own names). Nada is a Sunni Muslim from Baghdad. She was a flute player in an orchestra. She also helped out with NGOs. She began to have trouble with the military and sectarian groups because they believed her to be a spy. This is a "normal" suspicion placed on those working with NGOs. A large international corporation hired her orchestra to come over to Jordan to play and to show that "everything was good in Iraq." Because of the threats she faced in Iraq she did not go back and now she is here illegally. Now she does not help NGOs and does not e-mail. She lays very low and tries to make it any which way she can.
Amena, a Shi'a Muslim who has four children, came in next. They have been here for four years. Amena's husband had been working with Americans after Saddam's overthrow. He received threats and one day disappeared. She fled the country with no documentation or passport. Her children are registered as orphans and two of them are in school. One no longer wishes to go due to vision problems and taunting from other children. Amena makes a little money from the baskets she weaves. I bought one from her and Carla contributed money toward glasses.
Eman, a 41 year old Shi'a woman, came in. She had a B.S. in Biology (she showed us her diploma) and was a high school teacher in Baghdad. She had been asked to make a special event for Saddam's birthday (which was elaborately celebrated each year). The Ba'th party wanted to film it for T.V., but she refused because the parents of her schoolchildren objected to it being on T.V. The Ba'th party immediately threatened her life and she fled Iraq, leaving her 16-year-old son behind. She had hoped to get teaching work in Jordan. After three years her son joined her in Jordan. Eman was tearful while telling her story. She says now she cleans houses when she can get work. Because she is illegal she is abused in many ways and receives about $1.00 an hour. What struck me most about her appearance is that she looked like she was from Texas. She wore blue jeans and a blue jean jacket and had her dark hair pulled backed to show her attractive face. I looked more like a Muslim than she did with my long skirt and long scarf (even if it was just around my neck and not covering my head).
Mohammad, our last visitor, was a handsome, clean cut young man in a business suit. He has a Masters in Computer Science. He has been in Jordan for seven years on a student visa which has now expired. He had worked in Iraq as a website designer and with Oracle databases. He said in 2003 he had big dreams but now he has no dreams and no work.
After our last visitor left and we said good-bye to Zahra we took a taxi to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Of course we went through security and they held our passports or in some cases our Texas driver's licenses. We met in the conference room with Rani Sweis, Public Information Assistant and Astid van Genderen Stort, the Spokesperson for UNHCR who had attended the recent Geneva conference on the refugee crisis. I was allowed to record this hour-long meeting and will make it available at my podcast site. In short the purpose of UNHCR is "implementing partners to help refugees" which is extremely important now that Jordan's population is 15% Iraqi refugees. Even though the government calls them "guests" they are a source of tension and burden on the economy and they need help. UNHCR is doing all they can to relieve this overwhelming problem. They work with organizations such as CARE, Karetas, Save the Children and many others.
We learned a few important points from the UNHCR:
- Governments outside the region are too willing to look the other way to avoid recognizing the presence of Iraqi refugees in Jordan—and, by implication, acknowledging this dimension of the human costs of the war in Iraq.
- The United States and the United Kingdom, the two states most heavily committed militarily in Iraq, have paid relatively little attention to the regional human fallout precipitated largely by their military intervention in Iraq. Both states have close ties to Jordan. It should be in their interest to address the Iraq refugee problem generated by the Iraq war before the massive burden has a destabilizing effect on the region.
- Since the start of the war in 2003 until the beginning of 2006, the United States took only 12 UNCHR-referred refugees from Jordan. The United Kingdom took none.
As we left we knew the next item would be to find a place for a meal. We had not eaten since breakfast and it was now after 6:00 p.m. Someone suggested Mecca Mall, so we went there for ten minutes. Most of those ten minutes were spent going through an x-ray machine and having our bags searched. (Our taxi driver told us that was where the rich Iraqis hung out). The first thing we saw after this episode was a Starbucks and then fancy jewelry stores. So we used their restroom facilities and left. After a phone call, we met up with our first translator, Amjad, and had a wonderful local meal.
We returned back to the Center just in time for Charlie's live radio interview with John Basel in Houston for his show, "No Hate Zone."
Next Peggy let us view all her photos so we could download some for ourselves. That took awhile. Then I came down to the library to write this. It is midnight. Enough said.
