Saturday, April 26, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Life After Saddam

Iraqi Christians hope persecution of religious, ethnic minorities ends

Ismail Israel, center, and members of the Assyrian American Society of Las Vegas rally at Las Vegas City Hall on Friday to show their gratitude for coalition forces who ousted Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Photo by Amy Beth Bennett. Christina Nissan, 65, who came to the United States eight years ago, holds an Assyrian flag during a Friday rally in support of coalition troops. Photo by Amy Beth Bennett.

Christina Nissan and her family for years survived dire poverty and discrimination as an ethnic and religious minority under Saddam Hussein's repressive regime in Iraq.

"There was always a lot of starvation," the 65-year-old said, folding her hands below a small golden cross strung around her neck. "We had nothing, no matter how hard we worked. When you have no rights, what can you do?"

Nissan, who came to the United States eight years ago, was one of about a dozen Assyrian Christians who rallied Friday in support of the coalition troops who liberated Iraq.

On the steps of Las Vegas City Hall, they waived Assyrian flags and the national Iraqi colors that were standard before Saddam took power.

The group mingled with each other and chatted with television and newspaper reporters, explaining their history as being among the first Christians in the region that is known as the Cradle of Civilization.

They also spoke out for freedom and told of the hope that Saddam's rule is replaced by a democracy that values human rights.

Boshra Zayia, Nissan's daughter-in-law, arrived in the country 18 months ago, shortly after marrying Nissan's son, who had met her when he returned to Iraq for a visit. Nissan's family runs a small store near the intersection of Charleston Boulevard and Eastern Avenue.

Zayia, 28, and Nissan are from the village of Duhok near the Iraq-Turkey border.

"We lived by spinning wool and knitting all day long, making clothes to sell," Zayia said in Eastern Aramaic through an interpreter. "Since the Kuwait war, production slowed down, so we lived as housewives, just staying home. I had gone to school to be a teacher, but when I applied, I was told that because my father and grandfather were born in Turkey, I was a foreigner and could not be accepted. They have every excuse to discriminate. It was because we were Christian."

Her father was a principal at a local school, and although he could afford a home, he was denied the right to own property. The family had to pay the government for housing. Nissan said the oppression often was violent and widespread.

"There were massacres all the time," she said in Eastern Aramaic through an interpreter. She said Saddam's regime poisoned the water in some towns with chemicals. Hundreds from the city of Halabja near the Iranian border fled north to hide in the mountains and escape the chemical attacks after their water was contaminated, she said.

Both women said they have adopted America as their new home. Neither would go back unless the country were governed by a democracy like the one they enjoy here, they said. They said they hope other family members still in Iraq eventually come to America. In the meantime, they are sending money to help them survive the persistent poverty.

What remains a big question in the women's minds is whether the ouster of Saddam will lead to democracy.

"We're hoping that the new government is not an Islamic government," Nissan said. "Without democracy there is no change."

Wilma Odishoo, 66, said she understands their feelings.

Odishoo, also an Assyrian Christian, left Iran and came to the United States in 1959.

"I never liked that system," she said of the Muslim government that has ruled Iran for decades. "It was very oppressive. I wanted to live where I could freely think and live, as a woman, as a Christian, without any restrictions."

Sam Sapper, president of the Assyrian American Society of Las Vegas, said the way Assyrian Christians are treated will be an indicator of whether Iraq's developing democracy will succeed. He said Assyrians are an ancient people who now comprise only about 5 percent of the Iraqi population.

"We hope we see respect for the rights of minorities, freedom of speech, religion, and freedom from the tortures and deprivation we've suffered for centuries."

Assyrian Christians in Iraq have suffered persecution and marginalization by a range of conquerors from Persian armies and the Ottoman Turks to Saddam's regime.

Sapper, who fled Iraq in 1976, said about 200 Assyrians now live in Las Vegas. Many come from Iraq, but others come from Iran, Syria and Jordan.