Margaret Hassan: A Personal Tale

[libbygurl]

By Felicity Arbuthnot

As aid worker Margaret Hassan is held by kidnappers in Iraq, freelance journalist and long-time friend Felicity Arbuthnot describes the charity boss's heroic endeavours to help the people of Iraq.


Excerpt:

"Even in the bloodshed and turmoil of post-invasion Iraq, the kidnapping of Margaret Hassan, head of Care International in Iraq, is incomprehensible.

Margaret Hassan fell in love with Iraq more than 30 years ago, when she travelled there as a young bride with her Iraqi husband Taheen Ali Hassan.

They had met while studying in London and the former Margaret Fitzsimmons, from Dublin in the "land of a thousand welcomes", fell in love for a second time with Baghdad - formerly Madinat al Salam: City of Peace - and the land known through time as "the cradle of civilisation".

She converted to Islam, learned Arabic and took Iraqi citizenship."

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"She never considered leaving - not during the eight year Iran-Iraq war, the 42 day carpet bombing of the 1991 Gulf war, the 13 years of the grinding deprivation of the United Nations embargo, numerous bombings by Britain and America during those years, or when last year's invasion became inevitable.

Instead, she fought for the people and country, of which she had become a part."

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Read the whole article here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3764692.stm

[cali]

1. Thanks for posting this, libbygurl. n/t

[libbygurl]

2. Thanks to you, Cali! I posted this in response to your thread

earlier today. I've been wondering of late about Ms. Hassan, and worried about the absence of news of her situation. Posted this to inform those few DUers who are either under- or uninformed about Ms. Hassan's exceptional background.