BOOK REVIEW: Remembering life under Saddam

OPINION:

SAVED BY HER ENEMY: AN IRAQI WOMAN’S JOURNEY FROM THE HEART OF WAR TO THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA

By Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak

Howard Books, $24.99,

336 pages

Reviewed by Emily Miller

When network TV correspondent Don Teague was sent to Baghdad to cover the Iraq war for NBC News, he was unknowingly propelled on a journey that started with almost getting killed by Iraqi insurgents and ended with saving the life of an Iraqi girl who came to live with his family in America.

In “Saved by Her Enemy,” Mr. Teague tells a compelling and unforgettable true story of getting to know his Iraqi translator, Rafraf Barrak, and realizing that her life was literally in his hands. Miss Barrak, a 23-year-old Muslim from a poor family, worked as a translator for the NBC bureau in Baghdad. Her income supported her parents and nine siblings during the war.

Mr. Teague, now a CBS News correspondent, is a natural storyteller. His career as a TV reporter shows in his ability to write succinct and accessible language and to make the visual of the scene draw the reader into the heart-racing moments with him. This book - his first - is replete with dramatic events and suspense from both the war zone and the bureaucracy of U.S. immigration.

As American troops begin to withdraw from Iraq this coming summer, the debate over President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq will inevitably come to the fore. Seven years after the war started, this book provides an important reminder of Iraq before it was freed from the devastating hu-man rights abuses Saddam Hussein committed against his own people. Using Miss Barrak’s perspective, Mr. Teague gives American readers personal and direct insight into the lives of the Iraqi people under Saddam’s reign.

In one scene, Mr. Teague engages Miss Barrak about her views on the war. She tells him she hates President Bush and fears “Mr. John,” an Iraqi term referring to a murderous American military. She also defends Saddam, saying that “if he killed people, it’s because they broke the rules.”

Mr. Teague was aghast at this college-educated, English-speaking young woman’s defense of Saddam, especially because her own father was imprisoned for a year without trial or cause.

Miss Barrak also said that “if people in the U.S. say bad things about George Bush, he’ll kill them or put them in prison.” Shocked, Mr. Teague emphatically told her that Mr. Bush would not kill people for disagreeing with him and Americans have the right to free speech. He explained that in democracies, people have the right to disagree with the government and freedom to speak freely.

However, Miss Barrak stubbornly refused to believe him. She broke down in tears of frustration and ended the argument by saying she still “hates” Mr. Bush and believed the Americans would never leave Iraq.

Her refusal to accept Mr. Teague’s assertions of the realities of the free world demonstrated how Saddam so tragically kept the Iraqi people in fear and under total control. Miss Barrak could not accept the truth because by doing so, she also would have to admit to herself that everything she had learned to be true of the world was, in fact, wrong and she was ignorant about life outside her city of Baghdad.

Mr. Teague is a reporter first, so he does not overtly tell his readers his opinions on the politics of the Iraq war. But, through his firsthand account of the lives and belief systems of the Iraqi people under the Saddam regime, he shows that the U.S. military freed the Iraqi people from tyranny. In telling Miss Barrak’s life experiences - her unfairly imprisoned father, torture, murdered friends and religious dictates, Mr. Teague reminds the reader of Saddam’s oppression.

“The reason I came to Iraq in the first place, I wanted to see firsthand if any good was coming from the war,” Mr. Teague recalls during a scene looking at a painting in Baghdad. He writes that in that moment, he realized: “I wanted to meet somebody who believed, as I did, that freedom was something worth fighting for.” Mr. Teague accomplished those goals and reported on them to his U.S. viewers.

Mr. Teague also realized that the more important reason for his being in Iraq was to save Miss Barrak. Her work for an American TV network had made her a target of death threats and a terrifying attempted kidnapping by Iraqi insurgents. Both she and Mr. Teague thought she would be killed if she stayed much longer in Iraq.

From Baghdad to Atlanta, Mr. Teague, his wife, Kiki, NBC colleagues and friends worked to get Miss Barrak a visa to enter the United States and then legal permanent residence and a permanent, safe home.

Memoirs are popular now in the publishing world, perhaps because of the narcissistic nature of our society, where everyone is looking to be famous from reality shows and Facebook and Twitter. Mr. Teague, however, has written a memoir that is almost completely lacking in ego (a rare virtue among network TV correspondents). Mr. Teague’s recognizable face is not on the book cover, and his co-author is listed as Rafraf Barrak.

Mr. Teague rarely references himself in the book, but when he does, he modestly writes about his fears in the war zone and frustrations with himself.

Mr. Teague’s humility further shines as he repeatedly tells the reader that he is not Miss Barrak’s savior, but he is part of a larger body carrying out God’s purpose. He and his wife “agreed that our responsibility toward Rafraf was to help her. That was what we believed God had called us to do. By loving her, we would demonstrate God’s love and, in that way, try to be the best examples of Christians we could be.”

As for Miss Barrak, once she was in the United States, her veil was lifted - both literally and figuratively. Literally, she defied her mother by taking off the head scarf she had worn for modesty in Iraq. And, figuratively, she realized that Mr. Teague had told her the truth: In a democracy, every person has the right to freedom of religion, speech, protest, dating, education and choice. Without giving away the dramatic end of the story, suffice it to say Miss Barrak embraced many of these freedoms newly available to her in America.

“Saved by Her Enemy” has a compelling narrative like all the great stories in history: A hero goes on an epic mission; he faces great trials and obstacles; he finally conquers the goal; and, in the end, he learns lessons about the world and himself.

In Mr. Teague’s story, the beautiful lessons are that we are all united by our common humanity and that God’s love, as seen through our relationships, is more powerful than divisions of race, religion or nationality.

“Saved by Her Enemy” is a true story, but it feels like a parable that teaches us once again that God is at work in this world - even in a war zone - and loving our neighbors as ourselves will result in miracles.

Emily Miller was press secretary to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. She is a public affairs consultant in Washington.