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Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq

by Riverbend, Alia Mamdouh, James Ridgeway (Introduction)

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 442 ratings · 71 reviews

In August 2003, the world gained access to a remarkable new voice: a blog written by a 25-year-old Iraqi woman living in Baghdad, whose identity remained concealed for her own protection. Calling herself Riverbend, she offered searing eyewitness accounts of the everyday realities on the ground, punctuated by astute analysis on the politics behind these events.

In a voice in...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published April 1st 2005 by The Feminist Press at CUNY (first published 2005)

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Apr 27, 2010 Tulara rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you want to look behind the so-called media of the United States and find out about the war, read this book. It is written by a woman living in the war zone - along with her family and neighbors. She wrote blogs almost daily - this is a collection of her blogs.
She and her brother watch from their building's roof top as soldiers raid houses, Apache gunships fill the air with bullets and death, neighbors are taken away for "questioning" and never seen again and a man disappears on the way acros...more If you want to look behind the so-called media of the United States and find out about the war, read this book. It is written by a woman living in the war zone - along with her family and neighbors. She wrote blogs almost daily - this is a collection of her blogs.
She and her brother watch from their building's roof top as soldiers raid houses, Apache gunships fill the air with bullets and death, neighbors are taken away for "questioning" and never seen again and a man disappears on the way across the city to visit his elderly parents (found months later in a makeshift grave next to his bombed out car in another neighborhood).
Iraq was a thriving culture with colleges, women working along with men in corporations, large and small with the country's nfrastructure designed by their own engineers. Most people had televisions, dvd players, phones, etc. Public colleges were free. And then George Bush came and declared war on the country - based on lies. Our U.S. rallying cry was based on falsehoods and a grab for oil.
She lets us see/hear/smell the horror of war at her door.
She gives us a first-hand account we cannot ignore. It is a powerful read and a decidedly serious one.

Update: I finished the book. It's one of those - can't put it down - but hate to finish it too quickly because then it will be over. I read one reviewer that said although Riverbend was giving an account of what was happening to her, it wasn't representative of what is happening in Iraq. Huh? Our occupation put that country - city or rural back 50-75 years by bombing, shooting, looting - all done in the name of "democracy."
If you would take one moment and put yourself in Riverbend's life - so I live in Georgia. If a foreign government invaded my country, installed "puppets" with a history of stealing and self-promoting at the expense of the country, took over our streets, shot civilians, bombed public shelters with women and children inside, bombed the shops where we buy food, shut off electricity for hours or days at a time, prevented us from walking down the street to visit relatives, shell-shocked us with daily/hourly explosions - we'd fight it also. We had no reason to invade - now we know that and we are still there. It's deplorable that we go on with our "does-sandra-bullock-have-her-wedding-ring-on" lives while our government is acting in our name committing these acts against a majority of people who just want to live their lives.
It's like - how can you know it's happening and ignore it?
You can't.(less)

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Jan 02, 2008 Steph rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: war, middleeast

This book is a compilation of a year of blog entries by a upper-middle class young woman in Iraq. Although the woman is well-educated and a near-native speaker of English, the final product is less an eye-opener on the US occupation of Iraq and more a reflection of her ignorance or bias against various groups, her fellow citizens included. She tends to depict situations and issues in stark terms, rather than with the (purportedly) objective eye of a journalist. There is no mention of the Kurds,...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

With the Internet, we are now able to read accounts of war by noncombatants who are not journalists - while the war is happening, even as armies invade and bombs fall. Someone has called Iraq the first postmodern war in that we get simultaneous reports of what is happening from many different points of view besides the "official" ones. This remarkable blog by a young woman in Baghdad is a day-by-day record of the experience of the war in her city - and told from the perspective of someone not un...more With the Internet, we are now able to read accounts of war by noncombatants who are not journalists - while the war is happening, even as armies invade and bombs fall. Someone has called Iraq the first postmodern war in that we get simultaneous reports of what is happening from many different points of view besides the "official" ones. This remarkable blog by a young woman in Baghdad is a day-by-day record of the experience of the war in her city - and told from the perspective of someone not unlike her Western readers (so convincingly that some readers consider her blog a hoax). She writes fluent English and is familiar with American culture; she is educated, urbane, politically informed, and computer savvy (having worked at a software company before the war - a job that was lost at least in part because she is a woman in a rising tide of fundamentalist sentiment). Most of all, she demolishes any stereotypes of Iraqis that Westerners might have - stereotypes that often serve to justify the war itself.

In the 13 months covered in this published volume of her blog, we see the American invasion become an occupation, and the initial sporadic resistance to it evolve into a widespread insurgency with a mounting death toll. The focus, unlike news coverage, is on the casualties among noncombatants, and we are reminded on nearly every page of what it is like to live life literally "under the gun." And in a city where law and order are up for grabs, citizens must arm themselves for protection, while running the risk of being taken for "terrorists" because they are armed. Added to that, there are daily explosions, kidnappings, home invasions, and the continuing problem of power shortages. Meanwhile, the TV and internet news reveal the blunders of the American authorities and the follies of a do-nothing, American-installed provisional government. Then we hear again of the siege of Fallujah, with its staggering loss of civilian life, and finally the humiliations on all sides of the photos released from Abu Ghraib. Most poignant and disturbing is her retelling of the 1991 Amiriyah Shelter massacre, in which 400 women and children were killed by an American missile during the Gulf War.

There is understandably a lot of anger in this book. While certainly justified - often even restrained and measured - the book avoids becoming an endless and wearying diatribe. The mood modulates among a range of emotions and attitudes. We are treated at times to interesting descriptions of Iraqi culture, accounts of daily routines (like filling the water tank on the roof), and reports, laced with irony, of the laughable incompetence of appointed public officials, plus rejoinders to readers who have sent her emails revealing their own ignorance. Finally, the book is a record of clinging to sanity in a world gone very wrong. For those who support the war, don't support it, or are indifferent about it, it's important to read for what it has to say about the impact of foreign policy decisions on those whose lives are - through no fault of their own - suddenly in harm's way. (less)

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Mar 11, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: school

Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq is exactly what it says it is: a blog written by a young Iraqi woman living in Baghdad during the initial phase of the Iraq War. The blog itself extends from August 2003 until October of 2007 (and then the blogger vanishes completely), but this book just covers the period August 2003-September 2004, ending with the Marine attack on Fallujah. Riverbend, as the author calls herself (she remains anonymous in order to keep herself and her family safe), blogs abou...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Jennifer Abdo rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is Riverbend's blog. She's a girl from Iraq and I wish I'd have found her blog at the time of the invasion.

It brought back some thoughts and feelings I had at the time of the invasion and highlighted things I'd not thought of or forgotten. All those things I didn't know or have forgotten definitely added insult to injury or injury to injury. Each event that came next was more ridiculous than the first. The invasion on false pretenses was bad, but everything that came after...wow.

In add...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Hesper rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century, middle-east-north-africa, biography-memoir-letters, non-fiction

Rating subjective experience seems like a stupid thing when that subjective experience deals with surviving in a war zone; the five stars here are not a rating of the book, but a mark of my being glad that, so long as warfare continues anywhere, documents like this book exist.

If anyone expects it to be an unbiased, journalistic account, then those expectations will be crushed. Originally written as a blog about life after the "liberation" of Iraq by US forces in April of 2003, it was also the o...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-biography, military-government, nonfiction, religion, culture-discourse

I have a hard time talking about American involvement in the Middle East. I’m not sure whether it’s too soon or simply too enraging for me to discuss in any rational, diplomatic manner, but whatever the reason, I avoid the subject in my daily conversation to prevent embroiled emotional battles with friends and foe alike.

Suffice it to say that I despise everything about the Bush-era tactics (and, somewhat less, the Obama approach) in the Middle East and this book was a haunting reminder of the a...more I have a hard time talking about American involvement in the Middle East. I’m not sure whether it’s too soon or simply too enraging for me to discuss in any rational, diplomatic manner, but whatever the reason, I avoid the subject in my daily conversation to prevent embroiled emotional battles with friends and foe alike.

Suffice it to say that I despise everything about the Bush-era tactics (and, somewhat less, the Obama approach) in the Middle East and this book was a haunting reminder of the atrocities we’ve committed— and continue to commit— as a country.

Contrary to the puppy-dog and rainbow propaganda that we’re being fed by a corporate-owned news media, our presence in Iraq— and other occupied countries, I’m sure— is far from the “liberating” and “democracy-delivering” experience that we’re so ignorantly convinced it is. While there are no doubt supporters of the American regime in the Middle East, I think the majority, if given the opportunity, would probably opt out of the constant bombings and ransacking of their homes and communities; the unjustified detentions, torture, and murders of loved ones; the missile bombardments that threaten their existence every moment of every day.

Riverbend is a thoughtful and intelligent woman and I commend her for so thoroughly documenting an experience that will no doubt haunt her for the rest of her life. Armed with facts, rage, and an admirable sense of humor, she brings a sense of humanity and familiarity to the seemingly faceless wars we’ve waged over the course of so many years. This sense of unity— the idea that, in the end, we are all of one human community and should honor one another as brothers and sisters— is something that I hope will be embraced, as cheesy as it may sound to some.

I’m weary of war, and I’ve not even been mildly impacted. The unearned privilege that protects me from the true horrors of battle is far from universal. I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like for survivors of this madness who watch, day after day, as their country and homeland is reduced to rubble; as their government becomes a foreign, imposed regime with no sense of connection to the people themselves; as loved ones are assasinated in cold blood in front of their eyes.

Call me naive. Call me cliche. Call me unpatriotic.

This has to end. (less)

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Dec 16, 2008 DebbieK rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting slice of Iraqi life as it was lived during several years of the war. I found myself wondering, though, just how representative Riverbend's perspective is of the country as a whole. She's a middle-class, well-educated woman from a big city. She speaks as if before the war, all women in Iraq had freedom to marry the man they wished, work where they wanted, and divorce at will. She posits that there was no sectarian strife before the war and no fundamentalism. She also concludes th...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Moodthy marked it as to-read

I used to follow this blog so know riverbend's writing style. I didn't realise there was a published form to her blog, but I definitely encourage everyone to read it. It's illuminating and has really shown me the daily impact of the transformation inside Iraq and how it affects normal people. Stories like suddenly needing her nephews and cousins to surround her as she leaves for her job, because all of a sudden the freedoms she used to take for granted were under threat, dealing with abductions...more

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Aug 06, 2010 Madeleine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-memoir, nonfiction, middle-east-north-africa

I was an Iraq war protester months before the war even started. I remember getting into some particularly acrimonious arguments in fall 2002 in NYC and then Seattle, back when more than a few of your average liberals thought Saddam Hussein was coming to get them with weapons of mass destruction. I cared (and care), I argued, I spoke up, I went to protests...but I never connected with the people living the violence of my government's war and occupation on that deep level that means you can't ever...more I was an Iraq war protester months before the war even started. I remember getting into some particularly acrimonious arguments in fall 2002 in NYC and then Seattle, back when more than a few of your average liberals thought Saddam Hussein was coming to get them with weapons of mass destruction. I cared (and care), I argued, I spoke up, I went to protests...but I never connected with the people living the violence of my government's war and occupation on that deep level that means you can't ever look away or forget.

For those of us who don't personally know anyone in Iraq, who don't have to think about the horrors of the occupation every day whether we want to or not, Riverbend's book is a must-read. Baghdad Burning is a word-for-word publication of her blog by the same name (I really wish I'd known about the blog at the time she was writing it). Riverbend (pseudonym) mixes tales of her "ordinary" life under the occupation with on-the-ground reporting with cultural/history lessons about Iraq and Islam from her perspective. She's heartbreaking and hilarious, often in the same post. The blog picked up readers all around the world in the mid-2000s, when she was blogging from Iraq (her family left for Jordan several years ago). This collection of posts covers 2003 through September 2004.

A couple of years ago, I was talking with my dad about Iraq (right after reading City of Widows an Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance), and he expressed a view I often hear: that Iraq is so "fragmented" and "tribal" that the removal of US troops would mean instant civil war and a situation far worse than any occupation could ever be. That Iraq today is what inevitably happens after the British "put together" a colony and then country that "never existed," out of people who'd hated each other since the dawn of time. That's a very neat and easy (and inaccurate) view that takes the responsibility for today's sectarian violence off the US occupation and puts it on British colonialism. Now, British colonialism was plenty awful too, but this line of reasoning has sort of become the liberal-ish American way of justifying the continued occupation, and I'm quite sick of it.

I wish I could give Baghdad Burning to everyone who thinks Iraq is a made-up country of people who've been locked in sectarian conflict for centuries, so that they could consider Riverbend's perspective. She views her family and community as fairly typical for her country. Her family is about half Sunni and half Shi'a. She has friends in both religious communities, as well as Christian and Kurdish friends. Again and again, she remarks on her country's long history of tolerance, equality, and fellowship. Seeing that break down because of a foreign occupation often seems more painful for her than the actual physical violence of the occupation.

When people are desperate--when their country is being occupied by the most powerful army in the world, when the electricity is on 3 hours a day in the scorching summer heat, when bombs rain down on civilians who've done nothing--some people will turn to extremism. They'll latch onto sectarian loyalties that never mattered before. Occupation and war and violence try their hardest to warp people and warp communities. And the architects of those atrocities often know this and use the resulting violence to justify their course of action.

Yes, Riverbend's story is only one story. She does not purport to speak for anyone other than herself, and I would be doing a great disservice to the Iraqi people and to Riverbend if I assumed she spoke for her entire country. However, we need to be listening to as many authentic Iraqi voices as possible, and basing our opinions of the occupation and our activism on those voices, rather than on the comforting stories and excuses that we pass around the US media.(less)

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Sep 18, 2011 Radha Sukhu rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Baghdad Burning” is a blog by an unnamed woman who calls herself Riverbend, sharing the stories of her life during the Iraq War. She describes political, religious, and personal issues, ranging from government assassinations to women’s rights. The truthful voice of Riverbend is one that every writer could benefit from. Although this isn’t a “legitimate” novel, the character’s emotions are clearly displayed on each page. If this was a work of fiction, I’d say that I definitely learned how to cre...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Sasha rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-my-bookshelf, must-read-2013, booksforclass

You can find the full review on my blog The Dancing Nerd Writes Again .

*I was required to read this book for my Literature and War class.

Initial Thoughts:

I was really excited to being this book because it is a compilation of blogs from a girl who was living in Baghdad in 2003-2004. As a blogger myself, I thought it would be interesting to see a different bloggers perspective, especially in these circumstances. Obviously our blogs are not in any way similar. I write about (mostly) young adult no...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Wendy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-east, memoir, non-fiction, 2011

I thought this book was worth reading and I really liked Riverbend. She is smart, funny, and very down to earth. Her observations on both daily life and the ever-shifting political scene sounded dead-on. I realize that the author is anonymous and that some wonder if she is for real (or not). I really didn't get hung up on that point and just accepted it for what it was. I am willing to believe she is really who she says she is and I enjoyed reading what she had to say. It is rather dismaying tho...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Catherine Mustread rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Catherine by: MENA group

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, iraq, middle-east

Day-by-day commentary on what's happening in the country, neighborhood, and family of a 20-something young woman beginning in August 2003. Certainly a quite different perspective than from US news reports. I found her observations interesting and the story compelling. I read this as a book selection of the Middle East North Africa group.

I read this like I do most blogs to which I subscribe -- skimming some, focusing on others. Her talk of daily chores and the difficulties of such things as filli...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Rishikesh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful first person account of life in Baghdad under the american mess. Details the unimaginable idiocy of things happening in Iraq. It is a must read for anyone who still believes that "Iraq" can be blamed on islam or shia-shunni conflict or whatever. Here is a real person, just like you and me, having aspirations just like you and me, who is under attack from various quarters owing to their respective "ideologies".

This is one sane account of what actually happened.

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Jun 09, 2011 Meghan Moloney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

This is an incredible book. At a time when blogging was only getting started, an Iraqi woman gave a first-hand account of the US war on terror in the early days of the attacks. Her blog posts are detailed and emotional but sporadic, as the city went through electrical blackouts, raids, and religious and civil attacks between citizens. There is a lack of closure, as nobody knows who Riverbend was/is and whether she ultimately survived the war in Iraq.

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Feb 17, 2009 Erica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

'Riverbend' is a witty and sarcastic anonymous blogger whose stories paint a realistic picture of life in Baghdad post 9/11. Her political 'rants' are well-organized and intended for an audience that is ignorant to the internal politics of Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries that are struggling with religious fundamentalism and western imperialism.

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Aug 11, 2011 Jennie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reading-list

This was a very interesting book. I have a love/hate relationship with books written in a blog format, but it definitely drew me in. I really enjoyed getting River's side of things, watching the invasion and the time afterwards from her point of view. She's got a great voice and now I definitely plan on searching out the sequel.

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Apr 13, 2010 Tippy Jackson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: blog, war, economics, culture, environment, politics

Two things: First, I think my favorite part of this book was learning about the culture and customs held by some of the Iraqi people. I particularly liked the description, importance and uses of palm trees. (Although I can't remember if this was in this book or the second one.)

Second, because it's written in a diary/blog form, this felt to me more like a story or history rather than something that was currently happening. Also, given that it's impossible to know with any certainty whether or not...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Very, very worthwhile perspective. I definitely learned a lot reading this book; in particular, I was surprised to learn about Iraqi nationalism; my assumption had been that the vast majority of ppl in Iraq were more sectarian than nationalistic, but the author here clearly takes pride in her Iraqi identity.

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Apr 02, 2008 Jen Petras rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in politics or current events.

Extremely powerful. Definitely not for the timid.

Without even knowing Riverbend's real name, her very intimate story, or I should say her life, in a war zone grabbed ahold of me and made real not only the occupation of Iraq but also how quickly freedoms we take for granted can be stripped.

A blog is like reading a diary: you are allowed into the most private of thoughts and experiences. I had to read this one in doses because her very honest and passionate words moved me to frustration, sadness...more

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May 17, 2009 Jgido rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read a ton of books about the Iraq war. At least one for each roll of toilet paper I've gone through since March 2003. While a few western writers have produced awesome books, there has been nothing like reading it unfold from someone while living through it.

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May 06, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Americans

Shelves: women-writers, best-nonfiction, politics, 2007, iraq, contemporary

This book should be required reading for American citizens, particularly those of us in our twenties. Riverbend, the anonymous author of this blog-turned-book, is a young professional woman whose life has been turned upside down by the Iraq war. I was alternately struck by how unbelievably difficult her life has become and how much she writes and sounds like she could be one of my friends. Her descriptions of life in Baghdad after the invasion made the suffering there seem real to me in a way th...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Kiri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book, even in it's blog format. Whilst obviously it's only one person's view, it's definitely worth reading if you want to have any idea of what Iraq is about beyond the news reports.

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Mar 01, 2013 Brian O'conaill added it

I had to give this one a good review, since I wrote part of it. Just a brief quote from a blog I used to do, but its the closest I'm ever likely to get to publishing a book.

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Nov 15, 2010 Ginny rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book very much - it was an eye-opener for me. And I really liked Riverbend - the writing style is very engaging. An upclose view of Iraq during the US/Iraq war

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Jul 10, 2009 Kristine Nadolski rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazing book. The perspective of an Iraqi woman and the truth about what happened to the people in Iraq during the "war on terror".

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May 09, 2010 Jenni rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was soo interesting and sad. Anyone who really wants to know what is happening in Iraq should read Baghdad Burning.

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Aug 29, 2007 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants a first hand account of what daily life is like in Iraq from an Iraqi perspective

This book was a fascinating read! A young female student's blog was transcribed in this book that explains a lot of what is going on in Bagdad. She talks about her family, their circumstances, and what daily life entails. It really puts a personal narrative on a war that is often portrayed extremely impersonally in the media.

My gosh...I would be on the roof too if it was 112 degrees and there was no electricity. I am not trying to be naive, I know that the circumstances are horrible, but I foun...more

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May 28, 2011 Convert_chica rated it 5 of 5 stars

I started reading the blog years ago, and when the book came out I was so excited!

Wonderful book!!

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About Riverbend

Riverbend is the pseudonymous author of the blog Baghdad Burning, launched August 17, 2003. Riverbend's identity is carefully hidden, but the weblog entries suggest that Riverbend is a young Iraqi woman from a mixed Shia and Sunni family, living with her parents and brother in Baghdad. Before the United States occupation of Iraq she was a computer programmer. She writes in an idiomatic English wit...more

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