6th of October

Hassan Mouhdi (pseudonym) is an endoscopic surgeon and renowned in his field as a competent and skilled practitioner. At one point, Hassan worked as Chief of Surgery at a community hospital, ran a private practice, owned two cars and three homes. He has two children: Layla, age 9 and Ahmed, age 7 (both pseudonyms). They both go to private schools and speak English exceptionally well. Despite all of this, however, Dr. Mouhdi has been living on savings for the last two years and will run out of money in the next two months because he's not allowed to work.

Dr. Mouhdi, like most of the other Iraqi refugees living in Egypt, resides in a neighborhood called 6th of October, an outskirt of the city dirtier and poorer than many other parts. Most refugee families live together in ramshackle apartment buildings and none of them are able to get work permits in Egypt, despite their mostly upper-class status in their native country and their general high intelligence and skill.

I taught English yesterday, along with seven of my classmates, to a group of these refugees in tiny "community center" in one of the apartment buildings in 6th October. We piled into a van and made the 50 minute journey through traffic and most of the city out to the fairly impoverished neighborhood to meet up with the group of refugees who have come to learn English in hopes of bettering their situations and maybe, for those who wish to, emigrate to America or another English-speaking country. Most of them already spoke some English and the lessons were geared toward practical, everyday situations like directions, ordering in a restaurant, general conversation and resume building. All of the students, including the few children who were there, were enthusiastic, welcoming, very hopeful and happy and very smart. I absolutely teaching what, to them, is an incredibly invaluable skill that I take very much for granted.

Almost immediately after meeting Dr. Mouhdi, he began to tell me his story. He began by telling me how much he liked and appreciated the American military for "breaking us out of a prison we'd been in for 30 years." This sentiment is not shared by all, but is not uncommon, as many of the Iraqi refugees in Egypt were collaborators with the US and forced out of their country for such acts. Dr. Mouhdi was the first person to greet the American soldiers when they landed at his hospital in his Northern Iraqi village. Unfortunately, after the soldiers left, terrorist organizations moved in and set up shop in the village. After his seven year old son was kidnapped by one of these organizations and held for a day, he was told that he had 30 hrs. to pay them $100,000 or they would kill him (apparently because of his wealth and his American sympathies). Dr. Mouhdi collected what important papers, etc. he could and left with his young family to Jordan, Syria and eventually Egypt.

In his heyday, Dr. Mouhdi had been invited by some of the international medical organizations, many of which he is a member, to speak on his work in the surgical field. He even took his family to South Africa for a couple months after leaving Iraq, where he found work. Unfortunately, his children were not acclimated to the area and fell ill- so he moved back to Cairo. Now, Dr. Mouhdi, despite his impressive background, and much like the thousands of other Iraqi refugees living in Egypt (some estimate 100-200,000) is unable to gain immigrant status anywhere and is also unable to work in Egypt. It is simply a failing of the human family when such an exile of genius is allowed to happen again and again, country by country throughout our history. Is there any doubt that war destroys more than just what the bombs hit? Can we stand by and allow this to continue without taking action? Food for thought.

Peace to you all