Iraqi Psychiatrist Ali: Iraq’s Future is Wounded

Iraqi psychiatrist Numan Serhan Ali has been studying societal trauma in Iraq for years. In November 2006, he had to leave the country, and now works with Iraqi refugees in Amman, Jordan. His family is still in Baghdad. “We talk over the Internet and the phone.”

Ali had come to Istanbul as a speaker at the fifth International Meeting for a World without War at the weekend.

Ali believes that Iraqis need not only food aid, but also psychological support because the occupation has left deep traumas and invisible wounds: “They need to be listened to, they need to talk, and they need to learn rules.”

Multiple traumas lead to increase in violence 

“40 percent of Iraq’s population are experiencing five different traumas. More than three traumas usually means the risk of death and heart attack.”
Ali emphasises the frequency of stress, fear, depression and anxiety, and points to an increase in suicide, drug use, armed robbery, kidnappings and murders.

Death is a daily possibility 

He does not have to look far to give examples: “I have lost four relatives. Five colleagues have been murdered. They were close friends, two of them my students. One was killed the day he got his degree. All the murders are unsolved. Three or four of my neighbours have been killed, two of them children who were shot when they were at home.”

“Going to work takes half an hour, but it is a traumatic journey. When you have avoided an explosion, you feel lucky, but also guilty.”

Children and women most affected 

The situation of women and childre is worst: “There are many nightmares and a fear of going outside. This is a real fear. Many children do not go to school anymore because of it. Also, it is said that US soldiers are detaining 200-500 “child convicts.”

“Domestic violence has increased, as has the number of widows. Since the occupation, the number of premature births and miscarriages has doubled. The number of caesarean births has increased because people are scared of uncontrollable situations. Women are weighed down with life and the stress of daily life has increased.”

Lack of psychological support 

Despite all these problems, there are only 40 psychiatrists ofr 25 million Iraqis. The number of psychological experts has dropped by a third because doctors and academics have been primary targets of kidnappings and unsolved murders.

For Ali, the effects of the occupation are like those of torture, forcing people to live in inhumane conditions and humiliating them. He said that he knew about the torture at the Abu Ghraib prison before it became public knowledge, but was too frightened to say anything.

Like the US psychologists in Guantanamo Bay, there are also psychological experts who become part of the torture process. “In Abu Ghraib and in Guantanamo Bay, the health experts did not report the evidence of torture. This is shameful.”

Too many say "I did not know that" 

For Ali, anti-war meetings like the one at the weekend are important: “There are still many people in the world who do not know  what is happening in Iraq. Often, when I speak at a panel, people from the audience say, ‘I did not know that.’” (TK/AG)