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by Steven D
For those who have not yet come across her writing on the internet, Riverbend is a female blogger living in Iraq, perhaps its most prominent and certainly one of its most well respected. The entries she has posted to her blog, Baghdad Burning have won her praise for her intelligence, passion and eloquence. She posts about events in her daily life, politics and the consequences of the US led occupation in a clear and compelling prose that can be startling beautiful, even when its subject is as sorrowful as her grief for the death of a friend. Her blog entries have been collected into the book, Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq, and have formed the basis for a theatrical production by the Six Figures Theatre Company in New York.
Riverbend has rarely, if ever, posted daily entries to her blog, often lamenting that the available electrical power in Baghdad made it difficult for her to do so on anything other than an intermittent basis. Still, it has been almost two months since her last post on August 5th, and the more time that passes without word from her, the more I fear for her life. With the ever increasing levels of violence in Baghdad, where thousands die each month at the hands of murderous death squads, car bombs and open gun battles between rival militias and gangs, my fear is that Riverbend may have become another Iraqi victim of George Bush's misbegotten Freedom Agenda. We do know this: That she has been outspoken in her condemnation of religious fanaticism in Iraq in a time when armed thugs roam Baghdad streets enforcing their restrictive vision of what is and is not appropriate regarding proper female behavior and dress. That she is a Sunni in a place where Shi'ite death squads and militias hold sway over large areas of Baghdad. And that her writings are well known and well regarded by her international readers, in large part because she tells the truth our own government tries so hard to keep from us. These are all factors which cause me to worry for her safety. The anonymity of the web is no shield against bullets, bombs or people determined to kill you based on your faith, ethnicity, gender or politics. Let's hope we hear from her soon.
Is Riverbend Still Alive? | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Is Riverbend Still Alive? | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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