The Iraq most students know is one of American involvement. But an Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein was filled with censorship and paranoia, said the former literary editor of the Baghdad Observer Monday night in Eykamp Hall.
Poet Dunya Mikhail used her poetry as a medium to express her objections to Hussein’s regime before she was placed on Hussein’s list of enemies and forced into exile in 1996, fleeing to Jordan.
“I used a lot of figures of speech, layers of meanings and metaphors,” she said.
She said it was necessary to veil her poem’s messages, although thinly, because speaking openly against the regime could have cost her life, adding that it was not uncommon for people to go missing and never be seen again.
She said confrontations with Iraqi policemen, who could arrest people simply for not having identification on hand, were some of the most frightening experiences. Luckily, nothing happened to Mikhail.
“It’s always a relief when Iraqi policemen let you go,” she said.
Oppression was not limited to government, though. Mikhail said it was routine for the regime to mandate attendance to poetry readings, where poets read pieces glorifying war and Hussein and denouncing the West, and he kept captive by armed guards.
But it was only through illegal means that literature not following these guidelines was read. Mikhail said banned literature was often smuggled in with covers of approved ones. Any other discussion against the government had to be done behind closed doors.
So when she was finally forced to leave Iraq, Mikhail said it was a blessing but only created a new set of problems.
It was only with the help of some friends that she was able to obtain a passport, which listed her occupation as a poet.
“Poetry saved my life in Iraq,” she said. “I feel it was my real mode of transportation.”
Fleeing to Michigan—where she has relatives—she was allowed to stay longer because of a customs error. She said her travel visa was stamped for 1997 instead of 1996, allowing her to stay a year and three months instead of just three months.
Mikhail now lives in Michigan, where she won the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing in 2001.
The audience was also able to hear the poet’s work. Mikhail read “America” and “The War Works Hard,” both from the same collection of the same name.
“No matter what the experience you can get a poem,” she said, referring to how her experiences affected her poetry. “But it’s not the task of the writer to talk about her poem; it’s the reader’s.”
Mikhail said poetry also reunited her with her fiance, whom she lost contact with after leaving Iraq. It was not until 10 years later that she recieved a letter from an unusual place—Australia.
She said her fiance had been living there since her exile until he read one of her poems in an Arabic journal.
