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Armand Nassery was an Iraqi-American author and filmmaker, born in 1966, Iraq and died on May 31, 2017, in Iraq.
Armand Nassery is an independent filmmaker and Iraqi-American author. Armand was born near the Iraqi province of Dhi-Qar; one of eleven children. His family moved to the capital, Baghdad, when he was young in search of an improved life. He spent his early years of school reading history, literature, poetry and was fascinated with his English language class. In the early eighties, Armand's family was forced to move back south because of being labeled disloyal to the ruling Ba'ath Party. His family soon settled in a small southern town, which became the setting of his novel. In high school Armand joined the school theater group. He wrote and directed most of the plays with the help of one of his brothers. In college, Armand met some students who opposed the oppressive dictatorship of Saddam Hussein; some of the students were members of opposition parties. The ruthless Iraqi secret police Al-Amen arrested him on the final day of his last year. The charges were for writing poetry that was considered disrespectful to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. This charge held the penalty of death. Armand spent two months in the dim airless Al-Amen dungeons enduring continuous torture and interrogation. His conditions for release were that he would never again write poetry or join any forbidden political party. Armand and his brothers joined the uprising against the regime of Saddam Hussein in March 1991 after the Gulf War. In this ill-fated armed struggle for freedom he frequently stared death in the face. When the last southern town fell to the brutal suppressive Ba’ath forces Armand fled to avoid certain torture and death. He was tried and sentenced in absentia. The sentence was death. He spent three grueling days in the desert of Iraq and was able to reach Saudi Arabia with the aid of the American 82nd Airborne Soldiers. Upon reaching Saudi Arabia the Americans were required to turn him over to the authorities of Saudi Arabia. He was again imprisoned and spent six months being tortured for crossing the borders illegally. Then in 1992 Armand was able to immigrate to the safety of the United States. He has spent the last two decades living in California and the Midwest. Many of his personal experiences have been the inspiration in his fictional novel ‘Where Wolves Dream’. Dream. [1]
Where Wolves Dream (a novel) In the mystical setting of the fictional town of Balluria, Iraq, Salam and his best friend Hamid spend their days together with their peers of young boys and girls listening to mesmerizing stories, legends and myths told by a childless and mysterious gypsy, Barrya. Acting as a surrogate mother for the local children, Barrya reveals the secrets of the mystic town. As young teenagers, Salam, Hamid, and Hamid's sister Amel form a special bond through poetry and love songs, but the relationship is not strong enough to keep Salam in Balluria. At the age of 17, he leaves for America to study medicine. In America, Salam turns his back on his old life, family, and history to start anew. Even as the Gulf War and the long years of the harsh embargo tear the lives of his family and friends apart, he ignores their letters. Salam marries and becomes a successful artist, acting as if his life in Balluria never happened, until the events of 9/11, the War on Terror and later the invasion of Iraq sends his world spiraling downward. He opens the old letters and begins to relive the past.
Salam returns to Iraq after 2003, hoping to come to peace with his past and the family he left behind. He finds a mirage of Barrya, who attempts to heal him by revealing secrets hidden in the history of his homeland. The man who never felt quite a part of either country, or understood his existence as a citizen of two countries and two worlds, learns to be comfortable with himself while coming to terms with his past and starting to believe and see the hope in the future. Nassery hopes that his novel reflects Iraq's past and present realistically while providing readers with a glimpse of what life is like for immigrants in the United States. He depicts the struggle between desires to start a new life and the memories of a painful past and history of a country long held in the darkness of war and violence. [2]
Hotel Baquba a documentary that Nassery has been working on since 2006. The film covers the sectarian violence that erupted in Iraq from 2003 till 2010. The film is planned to be produced in 2013.
Children of Sader is a documentary film about the new generation of armed children and teenagers in Iraq who follow the "New Iraq" clergymen and execute their orders and fatwas with no questions asked. The film is to be released in 2013.
Hikayat Jameeya (English: A University Tale) a TV Series that aired and still airing in Iraq TV channels, Dijla and Al-Iraqia TV channels. The series is directed by Aleem Taher and produced by The New Civilization Production company. [3] Armand Nassery wrote screenplays, synopsis, co-directed and co-produced many of the episodes of seasons one, two, and three.
Al-Sayadoon (English: The Hunters) a TV Series that aired and still airing in Iraq TV channels, Dijla and Al-Iraqia TV channels. The series is directed by Aleem Taher and produced by The New Civilization Production company. [3] Armand Nassery wrote screenplays, synopsis, co-directed and co-produced many of the episodes of seasons one, two, and three.
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
Iraq under the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party saw severe violations of human rights. Secret police, state terrorism, torture, mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, deportations, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, assassinations, chemical warfare, and the destruction of the Mesopotamian marshes were some of the methods Saddam Hussein and the country's Ba'athist government used to maintain control. Saddam committed crimes of aggression during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, which violated the Charter of the United Nations. The total number of deaths and disappearances related to repression during this period is unknown, but is estimated to be at least 250,000 to 290,000 according to Human Rights Watch, with the great majority of those occurring as a result of the Anfal genocide in 1988 and the suppression of the uprisings in Iraq in 1991. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued regular reports of widespread imprisonment and torture.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was an Iraqi politician and army field marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and was regarded as the closest advisor and deputy under President Saddam Hussein. He led the Iraqi insurgent group Naqshbandi Army.
Watban Ibrahim al-Nasiri was the Interior Minister of Iraq. He was the half-brother of Saddam Hussein and the brother of Barzan al-Tikriti. He was taken into coalition custody 13 April 2003, following his capture as he tried fleeing to Syria. He died in prison of natural causes in 2015.
Ayatollah al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Muhsin al-Hakim at-Tabataba'i, also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia Islamic Scholar and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Al-Hakim spent more than 20 years in exile in Iran and returned to Iraq on 12 May 2003. Al-Hakim was a contemporary of Ayatollah Khomeini, and The Guardian compared the two in terms of their times in exile and their support in their respective homelands. After his return to Iraq, al-Hakim's life was in danger because of his work to encourage Shiite resistance to Saddam Hussein and from a rivalry with Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who had himself been assassinated in Najaf in 1999. Al-Hakim was assassinated in a bomb attack in Najaf in 2003 when aged 63 years old. At least 75 others in the vicinity also died in the bombing.
The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968, and was the ultimate decision-making body in Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003. It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the country, with the Chairman and Vice Chairman chosen by a two-thirds majority of the council. The Chairman was also then declared the President of Iraq and he was then allowed to select a Vice President. After Saddam Hussein became President of Iraq in 1979 the council was led by deputy chairman Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and Taha Yassin Ramadan, who had known Saddam since the 1960s.
The trial of Saddam Hussein was the trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity during his time in office.
Abd ar-Razzaq Said al-Naif was an Iraqi military officer and general and was briefly Prime Minister of Iraq during 1968 until he was deposed. He was assassinated on orders of Saddam Hussein.
Sectarian violence in Iraq refers to the violence that developed as a result of rising sectarian tensions between the different religious and ethnic groups of Iraq, most notably the conflict between the Shi'i Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority within the country. With the creation of a modern nation-state, sectarian tensions arose slowly and eventually developed into recent violent conflicts such as the War in Iraq (2013–2017) and the Iraqi civil war (2006–2008).
The mass media in Iraq includes print, radio, television, and online services. Iraq became the first Arab country to broadcast from a TV station, in 1954. As of 2020, more than 100 radio stations and 150 television stations were broadcasting to Iraq in Arabic, English, Kurdish, Turkmen, and Neo-Aramaic.
After World War I, Iraq passed from the failing Ottoman Empire to British control. Kingdom of Iraq was established under the British Mandate in 1932. In the 14 July Revolution of 1958, the king was deposed and the Republic of Iraq was declared. In 1963, the Ba'ath Party staged a coup d'état and was in turn toppled by another coup in the same year, but managed to retake power in 1968. Saddam Hussein took power in 1979 and ruled Iraq for the remainder of the century, during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, the Invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 and the UN sanction during the 1990s. Saddam was removed from power in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Ba'athist Iraq, officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003), was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. This period began with high economic growth, but ended with the country facing severe levels of socio-political isolation and economic stagnation. By the late 1990s, the average annual income had decreased drastically due to a combination of external and internal factors. UNSC sanctions against Iraq, in particular, were widely criticized for negatively impacting the country's quality of life, prompting the establishment of the Oil-for-Food Programme. The Ba'athist period formally came to an end with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the Ba'ath Party has since been indefinitely banned across the country.
Nadhim Kzar was the first head of the Iraqi Directorate of General Security.
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, also referred to as the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement, is a neo-Ba'athist political party which was headquartered in Baghdad, Iraq, until 2003. It is one of two parties which emerged from the 1966 split of the original Ba'ath Party.
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, officially the Iraqi Regional Branch, is an Iraqi Ba'athist political party founded in 1951 by Fuad al-Rikabi. It was the Iraqi regional branch of the original Ba'ath Party before changing its allegiance to the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath movement following the 1966 split within the original party. The party was officially banned following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, but despite this it still continues to function underground.
The 17 July Revolution was a bloodless coup in Iraq in 1968 led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Abd ar-Razzaq an-Naif, and Abd ar-Rahman al-Dawud that ousted President Abdul Rahman Arif and Prime Minister Tahir Yahya and brought the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power. Ba'athists involved in the coup as well as the subsequent purge of the moderate faction led by Naif included Hardan al-Tikriti, Salih Mahdi Ammash, and Saddam Hussein, the future President of Iraq. The coup was primarily directed against Yahya, an outspoken Nasserist who exploited the political crisis created by the June 1967 Six-Day War to push Arif's moderate government to nationalize the Western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in order to use Iraq's "oil as a weapon in the battle against Israel." Full nationalization of the IPC did not occur until 1972, under the Ba'athist administration. In the aftermath of the coup, the new Iraqi government consolidated power by denouncing alleged American and Israeli machinations, publicly executing 14 people including 9 Iraqi Jews on fabricated espionage charges amidst a broader purge, and working to expand Iraq's traditionally close relations with the Soviet Union.
The Tulfah family was the family of Saddam Hussein of Ba'athist Iraq who ruled from 1979 to 2003 and established a single party authoritarian government under the control of the Ba'ath Party until the invasion by US/UK forces in 2003.
Events from the year 1991 in Jordan.
The 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge or Comrades Massacre was a public purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party orchestrated on 22 July 1979 by then-president Saddam Hussein six days after his arrival to the presidency of the Iraqi Republic on 16 July 1979.
Women's sport in Iraq has a long history, with many sports being played. Football (soccer) is among the most popular sport and hobby in Iraq. Many also participate in, but are not limited to, basketball, volleyball, tennis, taekwondo, and weightlifting. It is often seen as taboo when women involve in sports and other recreations as it is seen as inappropriate by the large conservative culture, yet in the Kurdistan region as well as the more urban cities of Iraq, such as Baghdad or Basra, society has become more accepting and supportive over time. Women are encouraged to dress and behave modestly, so the involvement of women in sports and the wearing of sports uniforms have been widely seen as taboo. Even with the growing support of women in sports, societal expectations still lead many women to play in secret or avoid sports altogether, which makes it harder for women to get involved in professional sports. Iraq was, at one point, a hub for athletics in the Middle East, but during Saddam Hussein's reign, involvement in sports declined. Sports in Iraq have faced many challenges over the past years, and only recently have sports committees and athletes, both men and women alike, begun to rebuild teams and strengthen involvement. Even then, the Ministry of Youth and Sports are often responsible for sponsoring sports teams and athletes, but they often lack the financial means to fully support them. The country's unstable history of dictatorship and war, as well as the growing trend of conservatism, have been recognized as reasons for weak, lacking, and in some cases nonactive and even nonexistent women's sports teams.