I Have Family in Iraq

A young nun’s struggle

by Patti Ahern

When Sr. Luma Khudher, O.P. speaks of her life and her countrymen in Iraq, she does not discuss politics, ideologies or even Saddam Hussein.

Instead, the 30-year-old Dominican nun talks about her friends and family, and her concern that they have food, water, and electricity.  But even those basic issues are trumped by her biggest worry:  Are her friends and family even alive?

Living and studying in Chicago, Illinois, Sr. Luma is far from the violence that grips Iraq, but while her physical self is sheltered her mind is constantly focused on people back home. She starts each day by visiting a type of small town newspaper website to check and see if friends or family have died during the night. “I don’t want to look,” she says, admitting the fear she feels when checking the site, “but I have to look.”

Shocking

Sr. Luma comes from a large Christian family of six brothers and three sisters most of whom live in Qurqush, a small town 35 miles from Mosul.  Her father owns a shop there and her mother is a homemaker.  Because Qurqush is so small, it has been fairly insulated from the fighting in Mosul or Baghdad, but of late, there were a few cases of kidnapping in her village, along with a murder. 

The unrest, or as Sr. Luma calls it, the Civil War, is spreading throughout the country. “My sister is in Baghdad and she does not feel safe anymore.  She can’t afford to move because even in my town, she’ll pay triple the price for rent that she pays in Baghdad.  She cannot afford that” she says.  “It’s so sad now.  It’s so shocking to see.  I went home the summer of 2005 and the mess, the garbage in Mosul…shocking.”

Garbage isn’t the only problem; the country’s infrastructure seems to have crumbled and Sr. Luma does not see improvements in the near future.  Her parents get electricity for two hours every six to eight hours and they feel lucky if they get water every other day.  Sr. Luma also said her motherhouse community in Mosul included 50 sisters, but now only seven remain.  The rest have been relocated in small towns, because it is simply not safe to live in Mosul.

Guns are Always Pointed at You

The reality of day to day life in Iraq is filled with extraordinary tensions and fear. “When you are in Iraq, you have to keep 50 meters between you and a military car or else you might be shot” she says.  “Guns are always pointed at you.  It’s scary for anyone.” The language difference in particular between Americans and Iraqis can lead to dangerous misunderstandings.  When she last visited Iraq, the car Sr. Luma was in was stopped by soldiers, who wished to examine the luggage inside.  The soldiers kept giving the driver instructions turn the keys off but the driver did not understand English and tensions escalated until Sr. Luma was fortunately able to translate and defuse the situation.

Currently, there are six young Iraqi sisters in the United States, according to Sr. Beth Murphy, O.P., the communications coordinator for Dominicans in Springfield, IL. 

Transforming World Views

The young sisters came here to collaborate across the borders of nations and cultures by living, praying and working with their American counterparts. “In the process, they have transformed the world views of so many people whose lives they’ve touched” Sr. Beth says.  “This is a somewhat intangible reality, but I think it is the most important thing of all.”

For Sr. Beth, transforming views about Iraq and its people is a crucial byproduct of the Iraqi nuns’ time here in the United States. “Mothers and fathers—the people in Iraq—want the same things as you want for your family,” Sr. Beth said.  “We don’t understand the humanity of the Iraqi people. In the U.S., we have given up the responsibility of our citizenship.  We are not passive recipients of U.S. policy.”

Sr. Beth urged people to write and phone their government representatives regarding the war in Iraq, saying these efforts can make a “huge difference” in the decisions made by policy makers.  But her suggestions aren’t limited simply to political action. “Prayer is also incredibly important” she adds.  “Prayer is what keeps us going–it keeps us alive.”

Read Part 2 >>

Patti Ahern writes from Chicago.

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