Inside Iraq: A Tale of Three Mayors
Left to right: Robert Dekelaita, Congressman Colin Allred, Alqosh Mayor Lara Zara, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa, U.S. Ambassador Alina L. Romanowski, Bishop Thabet Habib Yousif, Congressman Mark Takano, Mayor of Hamdaniya District Issam Bahnam Matti, Mayor of Telkaif District Basim Bello, Congresswoman Katie Porter, and CCF president Martin Manna.
By Weam Namou
Since 2003, the Christian population in Iraq has fallen by over 80 percent. More than 100,000 individuals fled their ancestral home in the Nineveh Plain after the 2014 ISIS attacks and many never returned, even after ISIS was defeated in 2017. Some extraordinary individuals, however, have risked their lives to help rebuild their towns in the hopes of making the region safe for people to return. But they face major challenges.
“The hemorrhage of migration is ongoing,” said Isaam Bahnam, mayor of the District of Al Hamdaniya. “Time is not in our favor. Every day we lose people from our community, so speedy acts are crucial.”
Bahnam, an engineer, went with his family to France in 2015 as refugees. When he returned to Iraq in 2017 and saw the burnt and destroyed homes, he felt a calling to help rebuild them, starting with his own burnt-out home.
In 2018, he was voted mayor by the town’s councilmen, and today, he works at maintaining the area’s Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriac identity and establishing constitutional rights for Christians who currently live there or want to live there so they can feel confident in a brighter and more secure economic and political future. Otherwise, he warns, the migration process will continue, causing a demographic change, and that’s “a very dangerous situation.”
Bahnam estimates they have a population of 30,000 residents living in his district, while Basim Bello, mayor of the District of Telkaif, says his town’s population is so minimal, “the number can’t be mentioned.” No more than 50 Christian families live there, and they’re spread over different towns.
Bello was voted mayor of Telkaif in 2004. He never thought of coming to live in the United States, not even after he visited Michigan in 2006 for an event held at Shenandoah. “It’s difficult for someone to leave his family and emigrate during these harsh circumstances. I figured we’d stay, fight against it, and help maintain and control the area as best as possible.”
But nothing prepared him for the painful attacks of 2014.
“This was the hardest period on all of our families,” he said, as he and the rest of the residents were forced out of their homes. He eventually returned, determined to rebuild what ISIS destroyed. “Thank God today the situation is better for us than before, but we still face political movements against us.”
Lara Zara, mayor of the District of Alqosh since August 2017, applied for this position when it opened although no other woman in Iraq had ever held such a government position. “I was qualified for the job and had confidence in myself and my abilities.”
From a young age Zara has endured many hardships. Her brother was killed by a suicide bomber, forcing her father to sell their home in Baghdad and move the family to Alqosh. Her family discouraged their children from migrating, saying, “If we leave the country, we leave everything.”
One sister did end up leaving and going to Michigan. This caused her mother so much grief that in the hour that the sister was boarding the plane in Turkey leaving for the U.S., her mother died, possibly due to heartbreak.
More recently, Zara escaped a bomb explosion on her way to work. “A bomb was planted in the route I take,” she said, “but the explosion missed me.” The terrorists were caught, confessed that the bombing was politically motivated, and were convicted to hanging in Duhok. Those who gave the bomb order were never identified.
“The plan succeeded but it didn’t accomplish its goal of killing me,” she said. “It raised my resistance.”
Against such resistance, Zara has pushed to provide free land for Christians in Alqosh (to date 160 of them), where they can build homes. As a result, many residents who wanted to leave ended up staying.
Bahnam, Bello, and Zara each met with the U.S. delegation from the Chaldean community that recently visited Iraq and are looking forward to seeing what transpires from the lively discussions and ideas they shared. The community in the U.S. can help their ancestral land and its people through investment ventures, opportunities for online work (there’s a high unemployment rate for all Iraqis), and by putting pressure on the Iraqi government to include rights for Christians in the Iraqi constitution, which declares Islam as the country’s official religion.
“We encourage the community in America to first discuss ideas with us,” said Zara. “What’s successful in America is not necessarily successful here because of the laws, traditions, and other issues that differ.”
Zara visited the U.S. three years ago and says, “There’s no comparison. Even those who newly emigrated to America have changed to the American way of life, which is what must happen, of course.”
Bahnam appreciated the U.S. delegates’ attempt to protect the Christians in Iraq and said their visit helped raise morale, adding, “I think this will be a last attempt to convince the Iraqi government for us to have autonomous governance.”
“It’s important that these visits continue so people can see the reality of their ancestral land,” said Bello. “I was really happy to see someone bring his children along. That was a beautiful thing as it creates a thread, a bond, and a connection.”