Dina Mahmood, a third-year geography and environmental sciences student, has not been back to her family’s native Iraq since the war began, but she came close while visiting relatives in Syria this summer.
“In part of Damascus, there’s a Little Baghdad, because of all the refugees,” she said.
“All the shops and everything moved there. We were running into our old neighbors from Baghdad.”
Like other Iraqi students at UCLA, Mahmood’s background and personal connections give her a unique perspective on the war, which began five years ago this month.
Mahmood’s family is Iraqi, though she was born in Kuwait, and much of her extended family remains in Iraq.
The war has fundamentally changed the way many of her family members live, Mahmood said. Girls and women are no longer safe leaving their houses alone, and simply being financially stable can be dangerous.
“My cousin’s brother was kidnapped because he had a good job. He was targeted as someone who had money. He got kidnapped, and they had to pay ransom,” she said. “You have people who are desperate for money.”
Mohammad Tajsar, a fourth-year English and comparative literature student whose family is Iraqi, said some of his family members have also left the country to avoid the violence.
Instead of attending college in Iraq, two of his cousins fled to safety in Syria.
“My aunt would rather have them doing nothing (in Syria), not getting a job, than being in Iraq because it’s so dangerous,” he said.
Mahmood said that in some ways the predictability of Saddam Hussein’s authoritative regime might have been preferable to Iraq’s current situation.
“Right now, I hate to say it, but you almost prefer the way it was with Saddam Hussein, because at least then you had some kind of peace,” she said.
Still, Mahmood marks the removal of Saddam Hussein as a positive effect of the war.
She said she remembers visiting Iraq when Hussein was in power and hearing her parents tell stories about friends who were tortured, or who simply disappeared.
“I’ve seen what it’s like when Saddam Hussein was there,” she said. “When I was there, you really didn’t have much freedom. You couldn’t say certain things, because what if someone overheard you?”
But Hussein’s repressive government has been replaced with other kinds of extremism and constant violence between the nation’s factions, Mahmood said.
“These issues weren’t really an issue before,” she said.
The strife has had serious consequences for Iraqis, including Mahmood’s family.
“My mom’s side of the family is all Sunnis, and they had to relocate to another part of the city,” she said.
She added that extremist violence has also disrupted basic activities ““ electricity plants were bombed, cutting power to many families, and finding and keeping a job has become more difficult.
“It’s all in shambles. It’s all falling apart,” she said.
“My aunt owns a dental clinic, but supplies are difficult (to get). My other aunt has had like three different jobs now. … She’s taking whatever job is available just to get by. And the reason she’s (at her current job) is because the last person fled, or was killed.”
Mahmood said she believes it is time for the U.S. to leave Iraq.
“I’d really like to see America pull out in terms of military. And I’d really like to see Iraqis take more ownership of their own country, and coming together and uniting, and putting aside their differences. They need to realize that they’re all Iraqis.”
Here, Mahmood is involved in several efforts to protest the war, including her participation in the student group Coalition for Peace.
Tajsar is one of the founders of Coalition for Peace, which aims to unite student groups behind the larger anti-war cause, he said.
Though Tajsar’s family is Iraqi, he was born in Iran and moved to the U.S. when he was seven.
Though he identifies with his Iraqi heritage, Tajsar said he believes being a bit more distanced from the country has helped him develop a strong anti-war stance.
“Me and my older brother were very much opposed to the war before it started. My parents had a somewhat more ambivalent approach because they were there at the crux of Saddam’s persecutions,” he said.
But Tajsar added that he believes it is important to realize that the war does not only affect Iraqis.
“I think what’s important is for us as average students to realize how integrally we are connected to the war,” he said.
“Maybe the positive that’s come out of the war is it’s galvanized me and many other students to think about … how we can effect a lot of really powerful things.”