Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

By Alex Potter, Program Assistant

“I want to be whole again.”

When Ikhlas came to Minneapolis in August, she was frustrated and resigned. Three months later, with the help of the Minneapolis-based Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and the Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, Ikhlas is taking new strides.

Six years ago, an errant US missile left Ikhlas immobile: she lost her left leg from above the knee and most of her right foot after multiple unsuccessful surgeries. Although a US military unit stationed in her hometown in Iraq supported her through several surgeries, the promise that a US colonel made of ‘new legs’ never materialized. Ikhlas and her family did everything they could to facilitate recovery: they searched for funds high and low, were supported by friends and family, and traveled for more surgeries, but it was never enough.

Photo by Anne Nettles

Ikhlas’ prostheses were painful and ill-fitting, and war-torn Iraqi society was unkind and inaccessible to the disabled. While visiting the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in September, Ikhlas noticed the elevators and ramps and commented that none of that is available in Iraq. Before her accident, Ikhlas was trained as a schoolteacher. While teachers in the US are fully able to work while in a wheelchair or on crutches, Iraqi teachers are not. A government job center in Iraq threw Ikhlas’ papers on the floor when she went to apply for a teaching job. They said that, since she was disabled, she could never teach in an Iraqi school. Ikhlas set out to prove them wrong.

After hearing of her plight and how she believed herself to have “…so much potential that has not been reached…” the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and the Muslim Peacemaker Teams agreed to sponsor her expenses to come to Minnesota to receive new prostheses and regain the ability to walk through physical therapy. Partnering with Winkley Orthotics and Prosthetics and the Courage Center of Golden Valley, MN, Ikhlas set out on a long road to recovery.

Photo by Alex Potter

Working with physical therapists, nurses and doctors, Ikhlas was fitted for two new prostheses. Her right foot had a continuous open spot – a risk for infection and further surgeries – so the new boot-style prosthesis was fitted with the ability to slide on and off easily, as well as fit into more visually-appealing footwear. Amputations above the knee are always challenging to fit prostheses, but Ikhlas’ old leg was almost unusable. Painful, unsteady, and, in Ikhlas’ words, ugly, her old prosthesis forced Ikhlas to sit in a wheelchair most of the time. Winkley provided state-of-the-art prostheses – custom fit and adjustable according to comfort, height, and level of activity. With the new prostheses, Ikhlas practices her stride every day and is walking with less and less of a limp.

During her rehabilitation process, Ikhlas strengthened her unused muscles at Winkley and the Courage Center, a Minnesota-based rehabilitation center for children and adults with disabilities. Staff helped her walk on the treadmill, regain arm and core strength, and recover the balance and coordination lost from years in a wheelchair. The process was always difficult and sometimes frustrating, and she still has a long journey ahead of her, but Ikhlas has put forth an inspiring effort and begun to regain the ability to walk and to pursue her dream of teaching.

Throughout their time in the Twin Cities, Ikhlas and Sami Rasouli, Director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, spoke at various venues about their stories and the processes of peace and recovery in Iraq. Along with Mustafa (an 8-year old Iraqi boy also in the Twin Cities for medical treatment) and Mustafa’s mom, Ikhlas and Sami talked with Americans about their lives in Iraq since the Iraq War began in 2003 – personal narratives rarely heard in the media. In addition to public presentations and medical treatment, the visiting Iraqis enjoyed touring the Twin Cities, shopping, visiting art museums, going sailing, meeting local Iraqi refugees, and spending time with new American friends.

Photo by Anne Nettles

Returning to Iraq will not be easy for Ikhlas. Despite her enormous progress, Ikhlas points out that she will still be viewed as disabled by Iraqi society. Iraq is recovering from a still-ongoing war, and it is a harsh environment for the disabled. Still, Ikhlas’ trip to Minneapolis has opened many doors for her. Her enhanced ability to walk will help her pursue a teaching position in geography – what she would love to do.  If this turns out to be not possible, she would also like to advocate for others, like herself, who are disabled in Iraq. “I want to be whole again. Then I can be a voice for the challenged in Iraq today.”

Ikhlas will be taking new strides in Najaf, ones with mobility, purpose, and confidence. Though her wounds will never disappear, Ikhlas will return to Iraq with new abilities and a new vision for herself and her future.

When was the last time you heard something in the news about Iraqi refugees? Sadly, the ongoing crisis–one of the largest refugee crises in history–has left the media spotlight. Yet millions of Iraqis remain displaced, with no home and an uncertain future.

Consider the following (from the website of The Unreturned):

• 4.7 million Iraqis were displaced by the Iraq War (Source: UNHCR, Refugees International)
• By 2010, only nine percent of the displaced had returned (Source: Refugees International)
• Forty percent of Iraq’s middle class has fled to neighboring Syria and Jordan (Source: UNHCR, San Francisco Chronicle)
• The US has committed to admitting a total of 50,000 Iraqi refugees by 2011 (Source: Human Rights First, Reuters)
• If this target is met, the United States will have accepted just 1% of the total Iraqi displaced (Source: 50000/4274000=0.0117; 4274000 = 4700000 displaced – 426000 returnees)
• Today, there are half as many health care workers in Iraq as there were in 2000 (Source: Refugees International, The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children)

Many Americans, including the leading Catholic bishop in the U.S., agree that the U.S. holds at least some degree of responsibility toward Iraqis and Iraq’s future.  If you would like to learn more about the Iraqi refugee crisis, here are a few places to check out:

• The Unreturned, an award-winning documentary film that follows the lives of five middle-class Iraqi refugee families.
• The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), which organizes law students and attorneys to provide legal representation to Iraqi refugees and helps them navigate the rules and processes of resettlement in the US. IRAP “was started by graduate students at Yale Law School to provide legal representation and policy advocacy on behalf of Iraqi refugees seeking resettlement, and to assist those who have resettled. Eight other law schools and several hundred volunteers including students, lawyers and advocates have joined the effort to deal with this humanitarian crisis.”
• The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies “maintains the single largest list of Iraqis who are imperiled because they helped America.”

The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project is beginning to work with these and other organizations that provide aid and support to Iraqi refugees.

Check out the Veterans Book Project, a library of books authored collaboratively by artist Monica Haller and dozens of people who have been affected by, and have archives of, the current American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In their printed format, the books provide a place or “container” that slows down and materializes the great quantity of ephemeral image files that live on veterans’ hard drives and in their heads.

Each book re-deploys volatile images with the aim of rearticulating and refashioning memories. It stands both independent of and in concert with the larger collection.

You can support the Veterans Book Project here.

By Alex Potter, Water for Peace Program Assistant

In 2003, the US declared war on Iraq. Almost eight years later, the effects of invasion and occupation remain. Besides the thousands of troops and civilians killed or wounded, the unreturned middle class, homeless victims of bombings, and destroyed infrastructure, another result of the conflict has been more hidden. In 2004, the number of children suffering from cancer and birth defects began to increase dramatically. A recent study in the International Journal for Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERP) illustrates the dramatic difference in infant mortality in Iraq compared to the rest of the Middle East: from 2006 – 2010, Iraq averaged 80/1000 still-born children compared to only 9.7/1000 in Kuwait. The apparent cause? Depleted uranium.

During the siege of Fallujah in 2003, the US used 1000 – 2000 tons of depleted uranium munitions in their attack. With a half life of 4.5 billion years, the depleted uranium virtually never disappears, meaning the effects on the environment and public health are serious and obvious. True to its mutagenic nature, depleted uranium can cause cancer, adult malignancies, and fatal birth defects. Many bloggers have posted gruesome photos of malformed Iraqi infants, supposedly the result of depleted uranium munitions. Although the evidence of depleted uranium seems obvious, some involved in the occupation continue to deny the use of depleted uranium in the assault on Fallujah, as well as understating its use elsewhere. Regardless, it is imperative to find out if cities like Fallujah and Najaf are still contaminated with chemicals and determine how to protect those at risk. Public health professionals in Iraq and the US are researching this in a most unorthodox way: with teeth.

Our bodies contain a certain amount of uranium without contamination; all of it natural and most concentrated in our bones. Since it is not feasible to take a traditional bone sample from Iraqi citizens, doctors turned to gathering teeth, a lesser known form of bone. Doctors and dentists across Iraq are partnering to study the amount of depleted uranium in children’s teeth. The reason for using children’s teeth is two-fold. First, it is the youth of Iraq that are being affected by cancer, malignancies, and birth defects. Second, children’s teeth are some of the fastest growing bones in the body; the use of fast growing primary teeth provide the most reliable judge of the depleted uranium remaining in the bodies of Iraqi children today. After gathering teeth that have been lost or extracted, researchers will analyze the components of the teeth using mass spectrometry; this will measure the amount of chemicals and minerals present in the teeth.

Named the Iraqi Children’s Tooth Project, the research is controversial and possibly dangerous in both Iraq and the US. Some teeth have been gathered in Iraq already, but participating dentists have felt their safety has been at risk and have limited their participation in the study. Yet participants are still willing to continue with the project because they believe it is important to determine if and where depleted uranium remains in the environment. What do you do with a silent enemy you can’t get rid of? That is the great question. If successful, the Tooth Project hopes to publish its findings in an international medical journal and seek further research, answers, and solutions.