In Memoriam: Sahar Hussein al-Haideri (1962-2007)

Sahar Hussein al-Haideri knew her life was in danger. For three long years, she had reported critically on the rise of fundamentalism in her hometown of Mosul and, as a result, drew the attention of the self-styled Islamic Emirate of Iraq.

In fact, she was No. 4 on a hit list issued by a local jihadi boss.

Under the circumstances, no one would have blamed her if she had fled to Syria, but Sahar stayed with the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). She stayed – and she paid the price. On June 7, she was gunned down outside her home.

Ansar al-Sunna took credit for the slaying.

Susanne Fischer, Iraq Country Director of IWPR, had known Sahar ever since she started her first journalism training session in May 2005. In her obituary (the third one Fischer has had to write for a fellow journalist in a year), the IWPR director recalls:

Haideri was a remarkable woman in many regards. Strong, independent, dedicated
to the job, and at the same time a loving wife and caring mother of four.
Whenever she visited our training centre in Suleimania, she would seize the
kitchen and cook opulent meals.

Six months ago, her son-in-law was killed in a carjacking, so Sahar sent her family to live in Syria. But despite the danger, she continued to write about the transformation of her beloved Mosul into a neo-Taliban hell.

The fundamentalists were forcing women to wear the veil, blowing up statues and ordering the decapitation of mannequins. Restaurants even stopped mixing cucumbers and tomatoes (apparently “male” and “female” produce) in their salads.

Eventually, even Sahar felt the heat, and she jumped at the chance offered by IWPR to join her family in Syria. She lived there for only a month before coming back to Iraq.

An inexplicable choice to some, but Fischer knows why the Iraqi reporter returned. It had to do with the question that had tormented her throughout these years of violence: “What will become of Iraq when all the Sahars leave?”

In the past six months, according to the World Association of Newspapers, close to 30 journalists have been killed in Iraq.