Iraqi Psychatrist - Colors of Mind

A friend of mine told me this story: When he was six years old, he couldn't sleep at night, his parents decided to let him visit a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked him questions and perscribed him medicine, I asked my friend if it did anything, and he said: Yes, I became able to sleep, but only because I didn't want to see the psychiatrist again.

This little anecdote describes the idea that Iraqis in general are skeptical about a person visiting shrinks, automatically associating them with lunacy, and this is why we have today a refreshingly different blog about an Iraqi psychiatrist who stirs up conversations about the origin of Iraqi cockroaches during a formal dinner, talks to dead idols while he's alone, and quite simply just about everything you'd expect from an Iraqi who decided to choose the quizzical career of a psychiatrist in a land where mental disease is associated with Djinn possession. Saminkie is an interesting fresh graduate living in Iraq, often trekking between Baghdad and Mosul. His blog focuses more on personal experiences than dredging political commentary, an essential attraction of blogs and a severely missing one in the Iraqi Blogosphere. While Saminkie often commits gramatical errors, his posts are genuinely worthy to read, if anything, it's because of his unusual profession, he introduces himself as:

Wellcome to my blog, it is about my interests which I think many share me: PSYCHIATRY comes first cause am a resident doctor in psychiatry hoping that I will be a specialist in 4 years; IRAQ HISTORY cause am iraqi and like history especially the summerian and babylonian era; and all the siences that are linked to both psychiatry and Iraq history and that will be a long list.....
well you gonna have nice time with my blog...

Baghdad Dentist

With a recommendation from one of my favourite bloggers, this blog certainly got my attention. Baghdad Dentist is, well, a dentist and he's from Baghdad - but he's working in Mosul. Only into his third post, his reports of the events around him and his life in Mosul makes unmissable reading. Here is his introduction in his own words...

I'm a dentist (fresh graduate). I lived my 23 years in baghdad and living the 24th in mosul. I moved to mosul temporarily since the beginning of violence and the deteriorated security situation.
I lived the best times in baghdad especially in baghdad college secondary school where I graduated from.
I have an obcession of electronics especially computers and communication staff, so I studied in an institute of electronics during summer holiday when I was 15. my big desire was to be an electronic engineer, but the temptation of being a dentist and keen on progress in electronics field (being creative in two fields at the same time) override.
And that is what im going to achieve, working now in a specialized dental centre as a rotator dentist and the rest of the day with computers especially in baghdad I began to make deals to fix used laptops but it’s a small business for the while time. As a rotator dentist im trying my best to get use of my seniors' experience and im planning to get the master degree this year.

Uncensored ArabWomanBlues

Layla Anwar of the blog An Arab Woman Blues can hardly be described as a shrinking violet - for example, here she is writing about Islamists:

I absolutely detest, abhor, despise, hate, the current Iraqi government. I hate the fucking mullahs. I hate Sistani, Maliki, Jaafari, Muqtada al Sadr, Al Hakeem and there rest of the smelly retards - all those sectarian Shia shits from Iran. I can’t stand Iran’s Ahmadinajad, Khomeini, Khatemi, Khameini...Kha, kha, kha, khara...(khara is shit in Arabic) I am totally allergic to the snake Nasrallah and his fucked up sectarian Hezbollah, who says one thing and does another.

But it does not stop there...

I am a fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Salafists, the Wahabists...

And I am talking here as a WOMAN. These bastards stand against everything women of my generation fought for.

Erm, yes, quite ... you get the point. So it may come as some surprise to know that she has come up with a new blog called "Uncensored Arab Woman Blues". After diatribes of the kind above, what on earth has she got left to censor???

If you think about it, the answer is blindingly obvious. In her new blog, the hard woman of Iraqi blogs lets out her soft soft squishy side. And Layla comes over as a complex, vulnerable, sensitive person that you really want to get to know. I am slowly becoming a fan. Here is her own introduction...

This is proving more difficult than I imagined.
It's as if there are certain "red lines," I am not supposed to cross, transgress.

On the one hand, I am probably expected to continue fighting the fight - for the most part alone. My other blog is completely devoted to Iraq, even though that was not my only intention. I guess starting this one is an attempt on my part to affirm my own territory, my own space...Only for me. Hence no remarks will be allowed.

The other thing that feels like a stumbling block and which am hoping to turn into a stepping stone - is that old voice in my head that keep repeating in an automated fashion "what will people say"

Again, it feels as if I have stumbled on some big taboo that I need to break down, or chisle away at, sculpt it and change its forms hoping that the final product, will be a piece of personal art.

Two Iraqi Bloggers Off The Market

Eerily in sync with this blog post about Iraqis marrying all over the uneasy piece in Iraq ; two Iraqi bloggers publish freakishly similar picture-posts announcing their engagement ; Marshmallow26 and Micho Meme, alif mabrook.





To top it off, Micho Memo had apparently engaged into the 'family', into a reclusive blogger called Lion King. who celebrated himself on his blog.