Customer Reviews

Dancing in the No-Fly Zone: A Woman's Journey Through Iraq

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"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature - that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance - and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth?"
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov

Early in Dancing in the No Fly zone, Hidani Ditmars cites Madeleine Albright's famous reply when asked about UNICEF's estimate that 500,000 children died during the sanctions on Iraq: "I think it is worth the price." Dancing in the No fly Zone provides a chilling look at exactly what that price is.

Ditmars visits Iraq in 2003 and reports on life in the streets of Iraq, strewn with garbage and washed by raw sewerage. She tells her story through visits with Iraqis: business men, artists, press handlers, and mothers. And she tells it without apology.

She is at her best when telling the stories of mothers trying to hold her families together, alientated husbands and starving children.

As one Iraqi says near the end of the book, Iraq has gone steadily down hill since Saddam came to power in 1968. She does niether glorifies nor demonizes. She simply tells us how Iraqi people fared under sanctions, and she lets Iraqi ambibvalence about the American overthrow of Saddam and our subsequent occupation of Iraq speak for itself. Above all she toasts the spirit of the people she clearly loves.

We hear on the news about the utter lawlessness in Iraq, about the lack of medicine, the lack of electricity and clean water. No matter what one thinks of our intent in removing Saddam, one must admit that we have not delivered on our promise to the Iraqi people. I never really knew what life under sanctions were like. Children suffered, maybe fewer than 500,000 but certainly more than 1. Does it really matter who is most responsible for their suffering?

As to the previous reviewer, Michael Rubin is mouthpiece-for-hire, a consultant to the infamous Pentagon propagandists the Lincoln Group. His is an Iraq of 3.5 million cell phones, political debate, and Internet cafes in dusty hamlets. Ditmars Iraq is an Iraq of a long-suffering people who when asked to choose between the past and the present choose the future.

there aren't any other books on iraq like this, nor are there any other books like this on war or women... hadani ditmars has written a complicated account of her experience in a country whose culture she appreciates. she writes in a way that does not "other" the iraqis or emphasize the foreign nature of their being, but rather describes their situation in terms that are flatly human and contemporary. the book is both serious and fun, written with an almost conversational voice. she manages to communicate facts of the iraqi predicament that include both the everyday and the bureaucratic, oscillating in tone between ironic detachment and real grief.

For the past 15 months I have been Iraq, mainly Baghdad, serving as a gunner for my unit. I received Hadani Ditmars' book "Dancing in the No Fly Zone" from a friend of mine in Canada. Before reading the book I had an understanding that a lot of the problems Iraqi's faced were caused by American actions in the past.

What she has written hasn't really changed how I feel towards the Iraqi people. I do not hate them, though I do say insensitive things with my squad, and I do not look down on them. When I was younger I wanted to be a minister to help people, but now, I am a soldier in Iraq, and my biggest regret is that I haven't helped any Iraqis. I wish I could have, but our mission prevented us from really helping the people of Iraq.

I would have enjoyed actually talking to any Iraqi, but that was impossible as well. Her book helped me see the people of Iraq, not as victims, or as terrorists, or however else they are portrayed in the media, but as people.

This is a fine book. Ditmars took me on a tour of her experiences as a Canadian journalist, culling on 7 years of assignments in Iraq. With the exception of the front page of today's Oregonian, "Life and Death in Baghdad", I have seen nothing else in my reading of the news, and my favorite magazines, that comes close to showing how the everyday life of Iraqis is affected by the occupation, and previous sanctions. Everywhere else I see journalists dealing in abstractions, without a shred of cultural understanding and true compassion. With courage and aplomb,the author is able to use a variety of connections and disguises to connect with artists, musicians, intellectuals, laborers, prison keepers, health care givers, a suspected undercover agent, and even a "king in waiting". She is sensitive also to the women and children of Iraq, in these very trying times. We need more good books and reports about life on the ground in that distressed country.

How can I be laughing out loud while reading a book on Iraq ? Hadani Ditmars danced into my heart with with her stories . As an artist , I especially relate to her and her friends . I went on an exciting adventure with a brave , wild woman and felt compassion for and connection to Iraqi people by reading her book .

This is a book about Iraq from a civilian's perspective and it should be read for its own merits and not, at all, as a title seeking to justify the Iraq invasion or villify the US government. Ditmars focuses on the civilian element in her book, and rarely strays into military territory. She tells us what she learned talking to the Iraqi people and because of that, this is a title that should be studied and appreciated on levels separate from those that dissect the war on terror and Iraq's part in it. Do not read this book looking for excuses or anger over the invasion - read it just to see how life became for the Iraqis in the wake of the invasion and what they think about it. From my review of "Dancing in the No-Fly Zone" at Eclectica Magazine here is a brief synopsis:

Canadian journalist Hadani Ditmars traveled to Iraq several times throughout the late 1990s and beyond, and in her book Dancing in the No-Fly zone she does a very interesting comparison between life in the country under Saddam Hussein and after the American invasion. Her book was published before the sectarian violence escalated into civil war, but she provides an excellent snapshot of the years leading up to that catastrophe and shows also how many people were struggling to prevent it, to live their own, normal, lives.

Ditmars is not sure why she is so captivated by Iraq and its people but is clearly in awe of the long cultural history it holds. "Cradle of civilization, birthplace of Abraham, capital of the Islamic world under the great caliph Haroun al-Rashid, and more recently a center of pan-Arabism and artistic and intellectual life, Iraq is not a place to be considered lightly. It is a place to read poetry, a place to study holy books, to ponder the meaning of civilization."

She intends no irony with that last statement, "to ponder the meaning of civilization," but in her last visit, late 2003, she sees glaring examples of the destruction of civilization all around her. Old friends have left their jobs as artists and musicians to find more lucrative work for the Americans, but the price they pay in abandoning their own creativity (not to mention their contribution to Iraqi society) is high. Teachers are drivers, professors are translators, and a cellist is... she's not quite sure what her cellist friend is doing, but it somehow involves one of those ubiquitous NGOs. The American sector of the Baghdad seesm secure and thriving with the best the city has to offer providing assistance, but the rest of the town is struggling on every level. Ditmars is shocked and appalled when she compares the degradation of society against even the darkest days under Hussein and the sanctions. "It seemed rather than liberation, the invasion brought only the chaos of a power vacuum, and an increase in self-censorship for survival's sake." The arts, which were so long the life of Iraqi culture, are dying before their eyes, and Ditmars seems determined to document every last aspect of it she can find....

In the end, Ditmars leaves Baghdad because it has become too dangerous, and because the story she has to tell is simply being repeated by everyone she meets. On her last night she attends a fund-raising concert for the Garden of Peace project she initiated--a place for women and children to safely go and play and talk in the city. She listens to four children in particular sing "a rousing anthem whose lyrics combined nationalism, hope and a bit of John Lennon." Afterwards she learns the children do not attend school as they must work to help support their families. One little boy in particular, twelve-year old Assem, works twelve-hour shifts in a shoe factory to pay for his insulin. He is a boy with diabetes living in a war zone who must work to get the medicine he needs to stay alive. Ditmars gives him $20 to help pay for insulin, a gift he initially refuses but agrees to accept for his drugs. The next morning she gets on an airplane and leaves Baghdad behind but can not forget what she saw there, how the city has become the very definition of tragedy. And after reading her book, I can not forget Assem. What chance does a child like that have in a place that is falling apart; what chance do any of them have to survive in a city that the world seems determined to tear apart?

They are not all insurgents, Ditmars makes clear, echoing what authors Rory Stewart and Ann Jones have already proven true about Afghanistan in their books. Just because it's easier for us say they are, they are not all insurgents

I read the other reader reviews with amusement, wondering exactly who plants these things? The book is a joy, a ground-level look at the reality on the ground in terrorized Iraq after a decade of death and destruction, beyond the fatuous pronouncements of bought and sold commentators. We live in dangerous times, in need of smart, honest voices. This is a great read and an important highly personal story. Read this book.

The critically acclaimed Dancing in the No Fly Zone is a rare and wonderful book that allows readers unfamiliar with the country an intimate view of the society, culture and humanity of Iraq. For readers familiar with the long suffering nation it is a paen to the former cradle of civilization, now engulfed by barbarism, occupation and chaos.

It's interesting to note that Michael Rubin the so-called "customer reviewer" who worked for the Pentagon, is actually part of Daniel Pipes neo con think tank and has wroked for the Lincoln Group - the PR firm hired by the Bush administration to create "good news stories" about Iraq.

While Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of the London Independent said that Dancing in the No Fly Zone "touches places in the nation's soul the horror headlines never reach"
and Harper's contributor Paul William Roberts calls the book "remarkable" and "written with elegance, wisdom and compassionate humour" Rubin seems to have merely scanned the book looking for phrases he could twist to fit his own right wing agenda.

If he had actually bothered to read the book he would learn that Ditmars herself had been blacklisted by Saddam's regime for writing stories critical of that regime, was expelled at one point by Saddam's Ministry of Information for the same reason, and that the book includes interviews with a broad range of Iraqis, many of whom hated Saddam and his regime, but many of whom also decry the terrible state of things post invasion. (as do others, for example, like the UN!)

The scare mongering tactic of labelling anyone who writes about the terrible reality of everyday life for Iraqis as an evil "Saddamist" is not a new one - it was used by the Right during the Saddam era whenever anyone spoke out against the civilian suffering caused by the blunt instrument of sanctions - rather counter intuitively since the sanctions and the power of the state issued ration card dramatically reduced dissent and in fact entrenched Saddam's power.

The situation now in Iraq is way beyond simplistic with us or against us mentalities, and the beauty of this book is that it sees through the rhetoric on both sides to show the soul of a nation under siege.

If you care about Iraq and its long suffering people, read this book.

As the tragedy unfolding in Iraq increases daily, It's sad to see how right wing apologists in the US continue to bash this important book.

But as UK reviewer Maryam Cook puts in in her review
http://www.opendemocracy.net/arts/ditmars_3512.jsp
this book is a " reference on human courage and normalcy in the face of utter chaos."

Boyd Tonkin of the London Independent says,

"Not just another batch of war stories, Ditmars' fine reports from Iraq reveal aspects of the country - both pre- and post-invasion - that the battlefield junkies overlook. From the comic actor who adores Mr Bean and the conductor who brings Berlioz to Baghdad to the artists and cabaret stars, she seeks out Iraq's dogged creative spirits, and touches places in the nation's soul that horror- headlines never reach"


Consider the words of Mariam Cook.

Hadani Ditmars is a Canadian journalist who has been writing from Iraq since 1997. Of the plethora of books out there on Iraq (now three years since the US-led invasion) Dancing in the No-Fly Zone has a sense of reality and immediacy difficult to match. The author is of mixed heritage, with French and Lebanese roots, and her appearance and Arabic skills means she manages to get to where most reporters cannot. In one scene we find her gyrating to traditional Iraqi music, and in another prostrating with conservative Shi'a women for evening prayer. No stranger to criticism, Ditmars has been witch-hunted by sections of the western media for her exposés on the impact of sanctions on Iraqi children and suspected of spying by Iraqi Ba'athists.

Dancing in the No-Fly Zone deftly places the reader beyond stereotypes, into the lives of the people who have lived decades under war, sanctions, oppression and terror. Often passing as an Iraqi, and often using her ability to skip between various European languages - intermittently waving her Canadian passport in defence - Ditmars compels with her audacity. Journeys around dangerous areas in post-invasion Iraq are juxtaposed with memories of her experiences of life under Saddam. With a variety of cunning disguises, at one moment a peasant, another in traditional Muslim veil, she moves among the people like some sort of multiple identity secret agent, often staying too long in perilous circumstances. One almost breathes a sigh of relief to reach the end of the book and find she has not been bundled into the back of an untraceable car.

Yet the action-packed, almost darkly glamorous drama that unfolds is merely superfluous relief for the profound feelings of compassion and disbelief that are conjured alongside. A poignant question seems to run throughout: how can human beings, by fault or design, engineer such misery for others?

A lack of pretentious language allows the narrative to flow easily. Any political messages can be drawn subjectively; there are no sweeping conclusions or easy answers offered. This means whatever your opinion on Iraq, the narrative does not exclude. Instead, Ditmars adds layers to the nameless, countless individuals we see for nanoseconds, flashing across our screens, as another atrocity is announced. The cultural richness, stoicism (which reminded me of grandparents' stories of Londoners during the Blitz) and adaptability of Iraqis clenches at the heart muscle.

In contrast to many books that provide a political commentary, such as Tariq Ali's Bush in Babylon, and the less intense but more forgiving Revolution Day by Rageh Omar, this book paints a picture of the tortured country itself, and ordinary Iraqi's experiences. Instead of long-winded allusions to times long gone there are real people, conversations and compelling portraits. This text is a reference on human courage and normalcy in the face of utter chaos, it highlights human triumphs without pretence at happy endings, and it teaches us who, and how, rather than why.

Most journalists in Iraq today, with few important exceptions, remain embedded with the US military, relying on Iraqi reporters who risk their lives to do actual reporting, or simply repackaging the latest press release from inside the Green Zone. Hadani Ditmars is a vital, welcome, exception. In this important book she takes us into the homes and communities of Iraqis from many walks of life to show the feelings, desires, hopes, and thoughts of a people who have been demonized in our media and who have had their lives torn to shreds by an occupying power that actually has contempt for the lives of the people it claims to have liberated.