Interview with Issam Jameel

Topics of conversation:

• Returning to Iraq after a 12-year exile
• Threats received while working for  Jordanian radio station
• Fears, desperation and daily struggles of Iraqi peoples
• Personal conversion from Islam to Christianity

Issam Jameel was born in Baghdad in 1954. After finishing high-school, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts at Baghdad University and eventually did postgraduate work in theatrical studies. Issam studied acting but was more interested in writing, and he began to write criticism and reviews about local plays that were being performed in Baghdad theaters. This job inspired him to become a playwright, and many of his plays were performed by the National Theater of Baghdad. After departing Iraq in 1994, he worked in a radio station belonging to one of the Iraqi opposition groups against Saddam Hussein. In 2002, he immigrated to Australia where he currently lives.

Iraq Through a Bullet Hole: A Civilian Wikileaks

Issam Jameel
Modern History Press (2011)
ISBN 9781615990900
Reviewed by Richard Blake for Reader Views (11/10)

Read the review on ReaderViews.com