The Flying Carpet to Baghdad: One Woman's Fight for Two Orphans of War

by Hala Jaber

Zahra, aged 3, and Hawra, just a few months old were the only survivors of a missile strike in Baghdad in 2003. Their parents and their five siblings all died. Unable to have children herself, Hala Jaber, an award-winning foreign correspondent, was determined to do all she could to help them. Sent to Iraq by the Sunday Times to cover the war, the last thing she expected was to find herself trying to save two little girls who had lost everything. But what happened next tells us far more about that conflict than any news bulletin ever could. Being a Lebanese Muslim, as well as the employee of a London paper, Hala is in the privileged position of being able to straddle two very different worlds and explain one to the other, and her beautifully written and deeply moving account affords a genuinely fresh insight into the Iraq war and its terrible human cost.

Genres: Nonfiction

314 pages, Paperback

Published June 19, 2014

About the author

Hala Jaber is a Lebanese-British journalist. She was born in West Africa and currently writes for The Sunday Times. Jaber was awarded the Amnesty International Journalist of the Year Award in 2003. She won Foreign Correspondent of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005 and 2006 for her coverage of the Iraq War. She co-won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for her work in Iraq in 2007.

Her first book, Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, was published in 1997. The book describes the rise and the political agenda of Hezbollah against the background of Lebanese history from 1970 to 1997. Her second book, The Flying Carpet to Baghdad: One Woman's Fight for Two Orphans of War, was published in 2009. The book chronicles her efforts to help two girls during the Iraq War.

Hala Jaber is married to award-winning news photographer Steve Bent

Reviews

[Stef Rozitis]

I did not always find this story or the author's voice easy to relate to but it was a crucial story. For all that Hala tried to stay frustratingly apolitical and objective there is a right and a wrong here and bombing civilians so that children lose limbs and family members is always WRONG. At the same time I realise that I am relatively privileged to be able to sit here in my holiday motel and write my opinions thus.

Hala moves between understanding how privilege works and yet making excuses for the privileged and even exploitative and violent types. She moves between acting like an independent social agent and talking up awful gender stereotypes (maternalism, consumerism, serving men etc). She catches us between the worlds she has to navigate, she is both courageous and cowardly, both deeply ethical and reflective but also self-indulgent to the point almost of narcisissm at times. She is absolutely frustrating to take this harrowing journey with.

With her emotional, sometimes histrionic voice she shows us clearly a traumatising world of bombs, burns, poverty and distress but she also calmly talks of the opulence and casual violence that lives next door to it. She shows us the humanness of all the people but neglects to give priority (except maybe implicitly) to the oppressed rather than the oppressor.

We need to read this story we need to think of these realities- climate change will make some of these more immediate. DO we care for the individual or the big picture? I feel that Hala's answer is sentimental and self-indulgent but I have not got a perfect one for anyone and to do nothing is a cop-out. I admired Marla but I was not able to get close enough to see any flaws she too might have had. I wonder what I should do, how should I live. The heart-breaks we think we have are not as great as the real suffering of another somewhere in the world.

I plead guilty to the things that irritate me about Hala to some degree too.

I will share this book to a street library- it is one I feel people ought to read.

[Crazytourists_books]

Το βιβλίο ξεκίνησε καλά, χωρίς πολλούς συναισθηματισμούς. Η συγγραφέας προσπαθούσε να περιγράψει τον πόνο που την περιτριγύριζε όσο πιο αποστασιοποιημένα μπορούσε...Όσο περνούσαν όμως οι σελίδες, η Jaber ταυτιζόταν όλο και περισσότερο με αυτόν το πόνο, κυρίως των μικρών παιδιών, ο οποίος στο μυαλό της και την καρδιά της διογκωνόταν αφού η ίδια δεν είχε καταφέρει να αποκτήσει δικά της παιδιά...Αρχικά αυτός ο συναισθηματισμός δεν ενοχλούσε, πώς θα μπορούσε άλλωστε να ζητήσει κανείς από οποιοδήποτε άνθρωπο να μείνει απόλυτα αποστασιοποιημένος; Στο τέλος όμως όχι απλώς έφτασε στα όρια της υπερβολής αλλά κατά τη γνώμη μου τα ξεπέρασε κατά πολύ...Με κούρασε και ενώ στην αρχή με είχε συγκινήσει αρκετά, στο τέλος έμεινα με την αίσθηση ότι διάβαζα ένα μέτριο άρλεκιν...

Δεν είμαι σίγουρη αν θα σας το πρότεινα...Δε με ενθουσίασε, δεν το μίσησα...ήταν μάλλον κάτι αδιάφορο...

[Camilla]

An incredible true story. Very interesting to get an insight into journalism in war zones and more of an understanding into the impact of the Iraq war. The author's candidness about her experiences and emotions made the book very gripping.

I'd love some kind of update 13 years on.