[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Iraqi mother hides sons from Saddam for 23 years

By Wafa Amr

BAGHDAD, June 1 — Two Iraqi brothers made their home a prison for 23 years to escape execution by Saddam Hussein's security forces, seeing daylight only after his fall.

 

She endured repeated interrogation and constant surveillance by security men looking for the two boys. Her husband, pregnant daughter and another son had already been executed as suspected members of the Shi'ite Muslim Daawa Party.
       ''For 23 years I lived in fear and anxiety. My tears never dried until Saddam was toppled,'' Zahra, 67, told Reuters at her humble home in a crowded quarter of Baghdad.
       Zahra hid her sons in a room inside the house, keeping the secret even from her closest relatives. She managed to convince the security forces they were in Iraqi jails.
       In 1989, a bureaucratic slip-up helped Zahra's cause: the security forces told her all her detained relatives, including Saad and Ibrahim, had been executed.

Excerpted - click for full article ^

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Saddam foe hid in wall for 21 years
New York Daily News ^ | 5/28/03 | Bill Hutchinson

Jawad Amir is the Anne Frank of Iraq.

At age 28, he squeezed into a hiding place between the walls of his parents' home in the village of Jobah after Saddam Hussein ordered that he be executed.

Now, at age 49, Amir has emerged to a very different country - one where he finally feels safe to step into the sunshine.

"I feel as if I had just given birth to him again," Amir's elated mother, Ramsya Haddi, told BBC News.

For 21 years, Amir lived in fear of being snatched by the dictator's henchmen. Only a few relatives and his mother knew he was living in the narrow slot between the walls.

His life-or-death game of hide-and-seek began when he angered Saddam by supporting an outspoken Shiite cleric....