Baghdad Burning

I am currently taking a Gender and Globalization class here at St. Edward's. One of our textbooks for the class is based on the true story of an Iraqi woman who narrates her experience during the war. The name of the book is "Baghdad Burning", the interesting thing about this book and the reason why Im relating it to this class is that the book is based on the blogs she writes daily. At the beginning many people were suspicious of her blogs because she remains anonymous and her english is perfect. Her blog name is Riverbend and only her publisher knows her true identity. In her blogs she talks about the constant struggle she is currently living in her own country. She also talks about how americans and the world have a twisted notion of how Iraq really is. In her blog she says: I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night."
This book and Riverbend's blogs have taught me that your experiences can be shared with the whole world through the internet. This woman now has a book that is talked about in colleges around the nation and the information that she wants to share with us can help change a bit of the perception that people in america have of Iraq.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/