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AAI in the News

Photo Exhibit Shows Real Iraqi People: National Display, 'Faces of Iraq,' Opens Today in Dearborn

By Natalie Moore
Detroit News
Posted on Thursday April 17, 2003

DEARBORN—Images of war in Iraq have plastered television screens. Military jargon has entered our lexicon. But for some, there is an element missing in the coverage and conversations: the actual people in Iraq.

The Michigan office of the Arab American Institute wants the public to see the diversity and humanity among Iraqis. They are bringing a national exhibit called “Faces of Iraq,” which opens today and travels through southeastern Michigan with a mission to show everyday people of the Middle East nation through the lenses of photographers.

Seven photographers documented the country from 1998 until 2002. Their 55 photos depict teachers and cooks, clerks and doctors, babies and African Iraqis.

“Regardless of your stance on the war, in dialogue of the war, Iraqi people are left out. You hear ‘Saddam Hussein’ and ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ The people of Iraq have been living in desperate circumstances for over a decade,” said Brenda Abdelall, a field assistant for the institute.

The pictures offer a detailed scope of life in Iraq. There are images of an anemic child in a hospital, children standing near a decrepit school and a woman’s house ransacked by a cruise missile.

Then, there are photos of people in a meat market, a tire shop and the University of Baghdad.

“Faces of Iraq” comes from the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works to improve humanitarian conditions in Iraq through public awareness.

Abdelall said the current political climate made the timing of this exhibit perfect.

“This is a different way to look at people. My hope is that when people come to visit they will have respect and decency for the people of Iraq,” she said.

Alan Pogue is a photographer in Austin, Texas, whose work is in the show. He is a longtime peace activist.

“Over the last 13 years, the only pictures I recall are pictures of shouting and angry people shaking their fists. I wanted to photograph people in Iraq. And even now that the fighting has mostly come to an end, I think there is still a need for people in the United States to see them as just folks,” Pogue said.

A sample of photos can be seen at www.facesofiraq.org. It is sponsored by the Arab American Institute-Michigan.