Jean Sasson - Love in a Torn Land

Contents

Cover

Half Title page

Other books by Jean Sasson

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Modern-Day Iraq and Iran

Prologue

Part One: Childhood

Chapter 1: Little Peshmerga Girl

Chapter 2: Martyrs Hill

Chapter 3: Sprinkled by Stardust

Chapter 4: Baathist Terror

Chapter 5: Raad and Hady Return

Part Two: Joanna Grows Up

Chapter 6: Death

Chapter 7: My Mother and My Father

Chatper 8: Love in a Torn Land

Chapter 9: War

Chapter 10: The Trenches

Chapter 11: Raad Leaves Us

Chapter 12: The End of Hope

Chapter 13: The Secret Police

Chapter 14: Love Letters

Part Three: Love and Tragedy in Kurdistan

Chapter 15: Love and Marriage

Chapter 16: Under the Bergalou Sky

Chapter 17: Good Kurd, Bad Kurd

Chapter 18: Chemical Attack

Chapter 19: Blinded

Chapter 20: Escape to Merge

Chapter 21: Bombed in Merge

Chapter 22: Climbing Kandil Mountain

Chapter 23: Searching for Auntie Aisha

Chapter 24: Kosha, Child of My Heart

Epilogue: Freedom!

Where Are They Now?

Chronology of Key Events Affecting Modern-Day Iraqi Kurds

Glossary

Index

Love in a Torn Land

Other books by Jean Sasson

The Rape of Kuwait: The True Story of Iraqi Atrocities

against a Civilian Population

Princess: A True Story of Life behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

Princess Sultanas Daughters

Princess Sultanas Circle

Esters Child

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq

Copyright 2007 by Global Women Group LLC. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

Design and composition by Navta Associates, Inc.

All photographs courtesy of Joanna al-Askari Hussain, Raad al-Askari, Saad al-Askari, Alia al-Askari, and Hady Sarraj, from their personal collections.

Map on page xv Red Lion maps c/o Transworld Publishers

Wiley Bicentennial Logo: Richard J. Pacifico

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Sasson, Jean P.

Love in a torn land : Joanna of Kurdistan, the true story of a freedom fighters escape from Iraqi vengeance / Jean Sasson.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-06729-1 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Hussain, Joanna Al-Askari. 2. Women, KurdishIraqBiography. 3. KurdsIraqBiography. 4. Anfal Campaign, Iraq, 19861989. 5. Iran-Iraq War, 19801988Personal narratives, Kurdish. 6. IraqEthnic relations. I. Title.

DS79.66.H86S27 2007

956.70441dc22

[B]

2006029950

To Roxanne

Jean Sasson

To my own courageous Peshmerga, Sarbast,

and our two sons, Kosha and Dylan

To Auntie Aisha

To the brave wives of the Peshmerga

Joanna Hussain

When I was a child, I built a wall of hatred around me.

When I was asked,From what did you build this wall?

I replied,From the stones of insults.

PROVERB

PREFACE

On my lifes journey I have traveled to many corners of the world. During my travels, I have been privileged to meet and come to know many fascinating women, some of whom Ive shared with the world through the pages of best-selling books. During the writing of Love in a Torn Land, the true story of a Kurdish woman, once again I found myself in a unique position to explore an exotic culture while coming to know a true-life heroine.

Joanna al-Askari grew up in Baghdad, but her heart belonged to Kurdistan. She steeped herself in the magic of Kurdistan at her mothers knee, absorbing from her a deep devotion to Kurdish traditions and the pull of the Kurdish homeland. Her childhood holidays were spent in her mothers hometown of Sulaimaniya in Kurdistan. Playing there with her Kurdish cousins, Joanna was unaware of the frightful fate awaiting her and many other Kurds. The brutality festering in the heart of a man named Saddam Hussein had not yet been unleashed.

No one was surprised when as a young woman Joanna fell in love with a handsome Kurdish freedom fighter. When the man she loved retreated from the cities of Iraq to live in the mountains of Kurdistan, Joanna joined him. As a young bride in Bergalou, Joanna barely survived the early chemical attacks ordered by Saddam on the Kurds. Forced to flee to seek safety in neighboring Iran, it seemed that Joannas dreams were shatteredbut that was not the case. Joanna and her husband forged a new life even as the dreams of freedom for Kurds were renewed with the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

I consider my journey with Joanna a great gift that I now pass to my readers through the pages of this book.