Let The Light In

AFTER 25 YEARS OF HELPING WAR SURVIVORS, ACTIVIST (AND DAUGHTEROF SADDAM HUSSEIN’S PERSONAL PILOT) ZAINAB SALBI MAKES A CASE FOR OPTIMISM

I was 23 when I first read about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. News reports described concentration camps where women were raped day in and day out for months at a time. I was horrified and wanted to do something to stop such atrocities. The problem was, I had no resources. I had been living in America for only three years after emigrating from Iraq to flee Saddam Hussein’s regime. My family had stayed behind. My new husband and I were students with very meager finances. Yet I still felt compelled to help.

When I was growing up in Iraq, fear dominated my life—fear of speaking my mind and upsetting the government, Big Brother, which could be watching me at any time. Living in America meant that I was free to act, speak, and do what I believed in for the first time. I could not take that freedom for granted.