Amal Al-Khederi and Nermin Al-Mufti, two Iraqi women touring the U.S. to speak about Gulf War II and the American occupation of their country, gave their first of three scheduled talks in Chicago at UIC last Wednesday night. The forum, sponsored by Students for Social Justice, Free Society, Campus Anti-war and the International Social Club, took place at the Rafael Cintron-Ortiz Latino Cultural Center.

Al-Khederi, herself a director of a cultural center in Baghdad, told of how her center was damaged during Gulf War I (Desert Storm), rebuilt and served as a cultural refuge throughout the crippling economic sanctions of the 1990s, only to be reduced to rubble entirely by U.S. bombs last spring. Al-Khederi said 14,000 treasures were looted from the Baghdad Museum while U.S. troops watched from their tanks. And she described the humiliation Iraqis have endured throughout the past 13 years as their standard of living and level of education has dropped from one of the highest in the region in the 1970s to one of the lowest today. Full Story | Additional CIMC Photos: [ 1 ]