IRAQ: Not without her daughter

You know the story. A Middle Eastern man marries an American woman. They have a daughter, the marriage falls apart and he swipes the kid and takes her back to the old country.

But scholar Denise Natali, 44, adds a new twist to the story. She married a man from the Middle East. They moved to Paris, but it's she who brought her 7-year-old daughter to the region, to pursue a job at the newly founded University of Kurdistan-Hawler in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.

Her husband, a successful Paris restaurateur and an ethnic Kurd from Turkey, is packing up his business and following his wife back to the Middle East, albeit skeptically.

The pair pulled their daughter Haileen out of her Paris Montessori school and placed her in a Lebanese-run private school just set up here.

"My friends say coming here is professional suicide," Natali says of her decision to spend time teaching in Iraqi Kurdistan. "They say, 'You need to come back to the U.S. and teach at a real university.' But I think this is a research gold mine."

Natali is a chatty New Jersey native who received advanced degrees in social sciences from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. She began traveling to the Kurdish region soon after the 1991 Gulf War, first as an employee of the U.S. government and later as an academic researcher.

She moved here for real in 2005, teaching at the Salahuddin University, which she found to be a disappointment. "It's the Baathist system," she said of the school. "It's a security platform for the Kurdish political parties. It's a place for socializing and a place to meet potential spouses."

When University of Kurdistan-Hawler opened in 2006, with classes taught in English, she jumped at the chance. "Here we're teaching the students to think critically," she says.

Even though she's brought her daughter and dragged her husband here, she says Iraqi Kurdistan is still too unstable to build a life or make long-term plans.

"We're not taking money from Paris and investing it here," she says. "Are you kidding?"

--Borzou Daragahi in Irbil

Photo: Scholar Denise Natali took her seven-year-old daughter from Paris to Iraqi Kurdistan to pursue a teaching gig. Credit: Borzou Daragahi

Comments

[hasansas]

Ahhh, now we learn why this women always supports kurdish terrorists in her writings - he is a kurdish terrorist by herself.

[Len Eichler]

I appreciate the constructive comments made by everyone. It is useful to have honest, yet helpful input to very difficult problems.

[Hamma Mirwaisi]

Dear Mrs. Natali

I hope you will be successful in Kurdistan and continue on teaching in KRG region.
We are originally from Kurdistan region of Iraq. I visited Kurdistan few time to help rebuilding Kurdistan but for us Kurds you have to be in one of two political parties their to serve the Kurdish people.

I wrote these proposals with few friends here in Colorado. I did not find people who are interested to build Kurdistan based on my knowledge in America.

I hope you will be successful in your work over there and publish what we wrote or ask your student to write it in Kurdish for publication. If you find the KRG Prime Minister interest on the subject appreciate to let me know.

Regards,
Hamm Mirwaisi
Mar-21-08

Iraqi Kurdistan Modernization Plan *

I. LAND USE

A – Establish a National Spatial Data Infrastructure using international standards to divide the geographical areas of Kurdistan into square grids starting with a hundred thousand hectors and then subdivided down to one square meter.

B - Nationalize all mountains and rivers in Kurdistan similar to the actions of American President Roosevelt who dedicated huge portions of the American landscape as national forests.

C - Offer agricultural land based on the American system of Title Company, requiring that farmers register property in their names; the Kurdistan Central Bank will provide 30-year mortgage loans with low interest rates based on laws produced by the Kurdistan parliament restricting all use of the land to agricultural endeavors.

Note: Most of the landlords in Kurdistan either sold their land to the Iraqi Government or had it confiscated after the 1958 revolution.

D – Use the American System of Title Company to register property in Kurdistan, this system is very fast and easy for property transactions between people and will result in faster progress in the development of Kurdistan.

II. Build an economic foundation in Kurdistan through improvements in the Agricultural sector.

A – The Kurdish Government will build more dams to store water for use in irrigation.

B – Utilize dams for the production of electricity and build electric generators using other energy sources for electric production.

* Based on my life experiences growing up in Iraqi Kurdistan and living in America for over 30 years.

III. Investment in the higher education of the Kurdish people.

A – Hire two linguists from each Kurdish dialect to form a highly educated scholar committee whose purpose is to devise a unified Kurdish alphabet based on Latin characters. This committee will be responsible for producing a Kurdish dictionary that will preserve and explain each existing Kurdish word in detail.

B – Make learning of the Arabic language mandatory in schools so as to satisfy both the Arabic and Muslim populations.

C –Model the educational system upon the American system, which would make learning available to individuals of every age in Kurdistan through loans provided and guaranteed by the Kurdish Government. This will provide an educated labor pool, allowing the country to move forward in the development of a solid economic base.

IV. Communication with the Kurdish People

A - The Kurdish government should attempt to include the people of Kurdistan in any decision they make as much as possible, fostering a sense of solidarity and nationalism. This can best be accomplished through a democratic government, public media outlets and regular visits throughout the region by the president of Kurdistan and other Government officials.

Extra Suggestion - An urban development plan that is necessary for industrialization; thereby, collecting the labor pool in centralized locations through advanced planning for housing and mass transportation.

Note: I would like to thank the people below for their help producing this document.
Kenneth W. Wadman Systems Design Engineers
Joe Mirwaisi Information Architect
Dr. Michele Bremer Business developer
Duncan Bremer Lawyer
Shawna King BA Psychology

[Dave Harden]

The absolute selfishness shown by this womans move is truly incredible. How could a person that must be reasonably intelligent, judging by the list of post degree accomplishments, consider this a good move for her daughter? Notice that Miss Natali only states that her friends called this move career suicide, and mentions that the region is not stable for investment. At what point does her 7 year old daughters future play in the deranged decision making process that is readily apparent. Will it be up to the US Govt to bail out Miss Natali's family when she runs into danger, or is kidnapped in this extremely dangerous part of the world? All this so she can "research" at the cost of putting a child in danger, with no consideration of the potential damages. Individuals like this that continue to make dangerous desicions to feed their own ego's are no better than those that mistreat or abuse their families. I truly feel for their daughter and can only hope that Miss Natali comes to her senses and provides a safe environment for her child before its too late.