Digital Journal — “I was not living before the 9th of April and now I am, so let me speak!” Those words, posted on Ali Fadhil’s weblog “Free Iraqi,” best summarize the spirit of Iraq’s burgeoning blogging community.
On April 9, 2003, one of the many statues of Saddam Hussein dotting Baghdad’s cityscape was toppled by U.S. forces, symbolically ushering in the post-Hussein era. A proud people that had spent long years under strict dictatorship were finally free to speak — and these exuberant voices now shout from every corner of the country.
Joining hundreds of newspapers now available for sale are these emerging blogs that would have never seen the light of day in Hussein’s state-controlled era. This online version of democracy follows the country’s recent election, where more than 7,000 Iraqi citizens ran for office as part of 125 political parties, and the turnout was 8.5 million strong. Iraqis are clearly eager to reclaim their country, but now comes the heavy lifting.
The next year for Iraq is crucial, as newly secured freedoms, including freedom of expression, must be codified into a broad and inclusive constitution. The struggle for power must now be fought with ideas, not bullets. In the age of the Internet, blogs seem an obvious place to hatch these new strategies…
This article is part of Digital Journal‘s Spring 2005 issue. To read the rest of this story, pick up your copy in bookstores across Canada or the United States!
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