Baghdad Diaries: A Woman’s Chronicles of War and Exile

Nuha Al-Radi, a well-to-do Iraqi artist, kept a diary starting with Operation Desert Storm, the Allied operation against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and continued writing sporadically through 2002. 

Background:

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a former ally of the United States during the Iran-Iraq War, invaded Kuwait to gain access to the oil fields because his country needed money to rebuild after the war with Iran.  Moreover, the borders of Kuwait, established by the U.S., Great Britain and France after World War I had long been in dispute.   

While the conflict officially began in August 1990 as Operation Desert Shield, the combat phase of the war (Desert Storm) started in January 1991 and lasted about five weeks.  During this phase of the conflict, the Allied coalition flew over 100,000 sorties for forty-two consecutive days and nights, subjecting Iraq to the most intensive air bombardment in military history.

Baghdad Diaries, by Nuha Al-Radi

Vintage Books, 2003 ed

Al-Radi’s diary gives the reader a behind-the-scenes view of civilian life during the bombardment.  Al-Radi’s family was well-connected.  Her father was one of the first Iraqis to attend college in the U.S.  He studied agriculture at the University of Texas and later became the ambassador to Iran as well as ambassador to India where he served for nine years.  Al-Radi and her two siblings grew up in India and had an international and cosmopolitan upbringing.  They all studied abroad.  Al-Radi had an art degree in ceramics but later concentrated on painting and sculpture.   

This diary, which Al-Radi wrote in English, is divided into six sections: 

Prologue--She describes her family’s background to put her story into context.  The prologue was written for this 2003 edition. 

Funduq al-Saada or Hotel Paradiso (January 19, 1991-June 1991)--This part of the diary tells of the bombardment and its effect on their lives.   When the bombing begins in the middle of the night, Al-Radi gets up to stand on her balcony and watches the sky light up and listens to the barrage, while her dog Salvador Dali barks madly and runs in circles around the courtyard below.  Al-Radi lives in the northern section of Baghdad on land that includes an orchard of 161 orange trees and 66 palm trees.  Because her home is large and away from the bombing of all the bridges by the Allies, many friends and family members come to live with her, eat with her, or stay there at night during times of intense bombing.  She starts to call her home Hotel Paradiso. 

There is a party atmosphere at times.  Everyone shares their food because all food in freezers must be prepared and eaten quickly when the electricity is knocked out on the first night of bombing.  Gasoline becomes a precious commodity but sometimes they travel to other homes for social gatherings.  Mostly every night after the All Clear, they go to check on friends and family to see if they made it through the bombing.   

Access to water is sporadic in her area.  It isn’t long before Al-Radi reports that all her houseguests are using the bathroom in the orchard to save water and to fertilize the plants.  One of the older relatives refuses and goes home each day to use her toilet because her home still has water.   

As the destruction of infrastructure, factories, homes, and even a shelter for women and children continues, the death toll of civilians rises.  Al-Radi asks, “What did we do to you, George [H.W] Bush, that you hate us so?”  All Americans think of Iraqis as terrorists, oil sheikhs or women covered in black from head to toe, she writes.  Don’t they know there are ordinary Iraqis living here?   

Despite her Western connections, Al-Radi becomes bitter toward American Presidents who she feels lie to justify attacking Iraq as they seek to insure control over the oil fields.

Funduq al-Saada or Hotel Paradiso, is the most compelling section of the diary to me.  On Day 14 of the bombardment, her mother’s younger brother dies in his sleep, supposedly of a heart attack, but Al-Radi says he died of sorrow.  Her descriptions focus on the collateral damage of war:  Day 18: The birds have taken the worst beating of all.  They have sensitive souls which cannot take all this hideous noise and vibration.  All the caged love-birds have died from the shock of the blasts, while birds in the wild fly upside-down and do crazy somersaults. 

Embargo (November 3, 1994- June 1995)—The embargo is almost total, with strict regulation of food imports and medical supplies.   Al-Radi reports that poverty and hunger are on the rise among the populace.  There is a shortage of everything, burglary increases, and Baghdad is no longer a safe city.   

Exile (June 23, 1995- March 4, 1996)—Bribes must be paid to leave and return to Iraq.  She gets herself declared illiterate with just a thumbprint on her documentation because it’s cheaper to leave and return if the government thinks you are illiterate.  Everyone is getting sick from the effects of exposure to the burning oil wells and refineries, which caused pollution of air, water and soil.  People who can afford it go to Amman, Jordan for medical treatment.   Educated people who have the means leave the county.  She writes of a surgeon trying to become a butcher and an engineer a waiter. 

Identity (June 9, 1996-November 27, 2002)—Sporadic entries cover this timeframe as Al-Radi is all over the globe, from London and the U.S. to various countries in the Middle East.  She has continued to do her art, so some travel is in conjunction with art shows. 

Postscript (March 3, 2003)—Al-Radi lives in Beirut in an apartment building next to the Saudi embassy.  From her window she can see a slice of sky and one palm tree that is planted at the embassy.  She contrasts this with her lost paradise of her Baghdad orchard.  Again Iraq’s citizens wait for the U.S. to attack them, so George W. and Dick Cheney can finish what George H. W. Bush started. 

She asks:  What is the difference between Iraq invading and occupying Kuwait in 1990 and America invading and occupying Iraq in 2003?  The most powerful nation in the world with the latest weapons of mass destruction is attacking a small country that has been pre-emptively stripped of its defences…In the name of peace and humanity, thousands have to be killed.  In the name of liberation, in the name of democracy, there will be a military occupation. 

Nuha Al-Radi died in 2004 at age 63 of leukemia.

This book provided me with a different perspective on the Iraqi conflicts.  She mentions Saddam Hussein matter-of-factly and barely touches on religion.  It's a simple book but I found it fascinating.  Combined with the other books I'm reading about this region of the country, it makes me sad to think how much has been destroyed in this cradle of civilization.