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Your advice to GI Jane - part one

Posted in Q & A on Feb 29, 2008

Last week, I posted a moving letter from a U.S. soldier in Iraq.  She has “fallen in love” with Baghdad and, in particular, its children.  She understands why Iraqis are “mad as Hell” at Americans yet wishes they’d direct more of their anger at the “right people” — locals who demolish Iraqi villages in the guise of resisting occupation.

Her question is this: “As a non-Muslim Caucasian female, in an American Army uniform, with just enough knowledge of Iraqi dialect to hold a simple conversation, what can I do to help? I want to just talk to Iraqis outright, but I’m not very good at speaking the language and I don’t think they’d listen to a white girl whom many of them assume is a whore…” 

A number of you have replied and in the coming days, I’ll post excerpts from your answers.  It only seems right to start with the response of an Arab woman living in the Middle East:

“Sister,

You letter touched my heart.  I live in Palestine, where I’m on an encounter on daily bases with ‘the other’ or ‘the enemy,’ Israeli male and female soldiers.  As soon as I read your words, I knew that I have something to share with you.

I was and still [am] one of the people who hated Saddam.  I was thankful that Iraqi people won’t have to live in fear under his dictatorship anymore. But I’m sorry to tell you that the majority of people there will continue to see you as the enemy.  This is an inherited pattern toward the West.  U.S. policies in Iraq, which screwed things up, reinforced that attitude ten folds.

I’m not trying to put all the blame on the West.  I realize this is a very destructive way of thinking, as there are many players in Iraq who are willing to burn it into ashes. On top of that list comes Iran and Al-Qaeda.  These forces are huge, so first and foremost I advise you to keep your expectations real.

Your intentions to see a phoenix rising from the ruins will definitely affect Iraqis’ attitude in one way or another, but not about being seen as a whore.  I know it’s awful.  I have a British friend who has been working with NGOs for two years here in Palestine.  The other day she was telling me how often she gets abused and harassed by taxi  drivers because she’s Western. They assume she’s a whore as well. 

My friend perceives this as being unable to understand ‘the other.’  But I associate it with stereotypes that people in Arab culture have about Western women.  And furthermore, how we Arabs look at our own women too.

For now, I advise not to yell at people in the checkpoints. :)  Don’t humiliate Iraqis in any way.  Be kind to children, women and men.  No matter how simple it may seem, little things can really help.  Arabs are fed up with words.  We prefer good deeds that speak for themselves.

Be safe and be blessed. Keep those beautiful dreams inside you.” - Falastine

More of your responses coming soon.