Saddam and I, and the Stockholm Syndrome

Saddam and I, and the Stockholm Syndrome by Ali Shakir (Dar Elthaqafa Elgedeeda, 2018). The book tackles Saddam’s growing posthumous popularity among thousands of young Arabs and Iraqis, and is told in two parts: The first, a memoir of growing up in Ba’ath-ruled Baghdad and witnessing Hussein’s rise to power and its impact on people’s lives over nearly three decades of his reign. The second part begins with his controversial execution in 2006, and attempts to track the symptoms and roots of longing for the days of dictatorship; a phenomenon observed not only in Iraq but also in other Arab countries that were, and still are, subjected to the violent vicissitudes of what became known as the Arab Spring. The above translation first appeared in ArabLit on the 27th anniversary of the Gulf War.

A translated excerpt from the book:
Egg-hunting in Baghdad | Literature, the Humanities, & the World (stanford.edu)