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Carry on, doc
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Politician and doctor, Rajaa Khuzai believes it's something about her genes that gives her all the courage to cope
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A WINNER: Dr. Khuzai tries to lead as normal a life as possible . PHOTO: V. SREENIVASAMURTHY.
The toppling of the statue of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might be riddled with controversy, but for obstetrician and political leader Rajaa Khuzai, it symbolised freedom. "The first day after the statue fell, we felt free, like birds let out of a cage," she says about women in Iraq. The first woman physician in her hometown Diwaniah, Dr. Khuzai also became the first woman director of a hospital in Iraq.
At a women's conference held in the city recently, she tells MetroPlus a favourite story, which summons the gist of life under the Saddam Hussein regime: "During the First Gulf War, I performed 22 caesareans in candlelight. The porter had to go two miles away to bring water from a river... there were no medicines available. But all the women came back after 10 days to have their sutures removed," she says.
Liberal family
Currently one of the few women serving on the Iraqi National Assembly, Chairwoman of the National Council for Women, founder of the Iraqi Widows Organisation both in Baghdad and her hometown, and also the founder of the Women's Health Centre in Baghdad, Dr. Khuzai has comfortably embraced fields of public health and politics. She came from a liberal family, describing her father as a "scientific man" who took her with him to a nearby farm where he was part of a literacy programme. She spent holidays devouring his books, doing well academically and earning the epithet "doctor", used fondly on her from the age of six.
`We're now targets'
After studying in London, Dr. Khuzai returned to Iraq. She reflects on the changes in her life ever since she became a part of the governing council. "We are now targets," she says about her family. "They (terrorists) look for us; we get phone calls and letters of threat." The security situation is worse than it was before. "Terrorists are targeting women — my colleague was assassinated... the security just deteriorates day by day. When my children go to school, I don't know if they'll return. We need to live a normal life, but our life is far from normal. Whenever we hear a car bomb, I hope it's not near my children's college... and they hope it's not near me."
Declaring that women have more independence to enter politics and more freedom in their daily lives post-war, Dr. Khuzai says the only solution is to empower the Iraqi police slowly.
Constant violence might have worn down a frailer person, but Dr. Khuzai is certain that the only way to survive is to try and lead as normal a life as possible, without letting fear hold you back. "There's something in our genes that gives us strength, bravery and courage," she says. "There's no other way in which we would have been able to stand this." Despite the dangers, uncertainties and the fragility of a country establishing its processes, neither Dr. Khuzai nor her children think of leaving Iraq. "We didn't leave when Saddam was ruling," she says simply, "so why would we leave now?"
H.G.
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