Interesting Conversation

I had an interesting conversation with an Iraqi woman today. On the way to pick up a friend from her doctor's office (to give her a ride home), I passed a Muslim woman walking along one of the back streets of my town.

My hometown is in the foothills. Some of it is flat, but most of it is on an incline, with the highest part of it climbing a pretty steep hill. I was driving along one of the steepest streets when I saw the woman. In addition to being steep, the point where I passed her was a LONG way from anywhere. She was obviously walking from the residential area, but it was at least a half mile to the next largest street, and she was lugging a rolling suitcase and a rather large shoulder bag, dressed completely in the traditional Muslim robe/dress and head covering.

Usually I rationalize every possible reason for a person to be walking and where they might be heading until I'm way too far along to stop even if I did feel like it would be the right thing to do. This time, it took no time at all. A woman dressed like that, carrying that much baggage, had no business walking the distance she would be going just to get to the next store, assuming she was walking to Costco (which seemed highly unlikely).

So I slammed on my brakes, backed up as far as was safe along the curb, and offered the lady a ride. It turned out she was walking to the light rail station which was clear across town.

She was at least 60 years old. She'd been in this country for 10 years, still going through the process of getting her green card. Living with her unmarried daughter, as is culturally correct (from what I gathered), she would take this hike anytime she wanted to go into the nearest city, which is about 30 miles away.

We talked about Iraq, and her view on the war. She voiced frustration that our country leaders (not the people, she stressed) invaded her country and dismantled her country's military. Hussein was a dictator, of course, but the people under him were required to obey for fear of death. Even I had to obey, or I would be killed, she said.

Can you imagine living like that? But the interesting part of the conversation was that she believed that the dismantling of the sitting military is what opened the country up to civil war between the religious factions. I don't understand the ins and outs of the Sunni and Shiite (and I thought she mentioned one other) factions, but she referred to them as militias with no one left to control them.

We didn't have much time, there was a bit of a language barrier, and I'm sure there was much more that I don't remember, but it was interesting to hear her point of view.