Around the Riverbend

In her web blog, a remarkable young Iraqi woman gives a human face to war and occupation. In August 2003, a 2003 a /5 year old Iraqi woman living in Baghdad began a post under a secretive identity. Calling herself Riverbend, she wrote blogs depicting eyewitness accounts of the everyday realities on the ground, with analysis on the politics behind these events. Riverbend recounts stories of life as a woman in an occupied city of neighbors whose homes are raided by U.S. troops, whose relatives disappear into prisons, and whose children are kidnapped by militias. This first person perspective that is transcended with no regulation demonstrated to me that the information available in a blog live Riverbend can be mech more captivating. These captivating details, not only breaking the western mold of media coverage on the Iraq war, give voice to the 'real people' affected by the war. Riverbend's perspective as a woman also gave me a new perspective into the daily lives of women in Iraq during the time of the war. Riverbend's analyses of everything from the works of the Iraqi Governing Council to the torture in Abu Ghraib, from the coverage provided by American media and by Al-Jazeera to Bush's State of the Union Speech. These analyzations of international politics taught me the fate of women under the fundamakistist regimes that took hold of Iraq during post war times. These social pressures, both legally and religiously, imposed on women are rarely explored by western media outlets, especially in such critical detail. Riverbend's perspective as an Iraqi citizen also shatters the traditional, US supported, main stream media that rears oh details the negative co sequences on the daily lives of civilians during the Iraqi war. These gripping stories given in her blog offer a a critically new insight into the co sequences, experience and outcome of the US war on Iraq.