How ‘Little Saddam’ spent her longest night
Category: Career, Celebrity News, Entertainment, Family, Lifestyle, Relationship
As Saddam Hussein’s eldest daughter, Raghad was a privileged member of the Baathist aristocracy, her every whim fulfilled. Now 39 and living in comfortable exile in Jordan, she has been elevated to the de facto headship of the family. Given the nickname “Little Saddam” because of her quick temper, the mother of five is tall and slim, has dyed blonde hair and is an avid shopper in Amman’s upmarket boutiques on the aptly named Wakalat (Label) Street. Her two-story sandstone villa with palm trees and immaculately pruned bushes, is between the homes of a former Jordanian Prime Minister and a retired head of intelligence in Amman’s richest hill-top suburb Abdoun, among Jordan’s old money and nouveaux riches. She lives with her 15-year-old son Saddam said to bear a striking resemblance to his grandfather and her youngest daughter, 12. Her three other children including her eldest son, Ali live in Qatar with Saddam’s widow, Sajida. Like any wealthy Jordanian, Raghad has a Filipina maid and cook to do the housework and chores.
But for a week her house has been a grim scene as she devoted herself to greeting guests and taking condolence calls. Raghad and her sister Rana remain fiercely loyal to their dead father, even though Saddam killed both their husbands in 1996 after they defected then unwisely returned. In 2003, shortly after he was toppled, Raghad described him as a “loving” father with a “big heart” and after he was caught she told an Arabic satellite channel: “Saddam was tranquilized. He would be a lion even when caged. Every honest person who knows Saddam knows that he is firm and powerful.”
She learned that her father’s execution was imminent at about 9am on December 29, the eve of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice). Accompanied by her son Saddam, her daughter, her sister’s family and a few Iraqi female friends, they waited until 5.30am Jordanian time, when the death was announced on Arabic satellite television. “They read the Koran a lot. They were asking Allah to give him [Saddam] the power to get through these minutes,” said her spokeswoman Ms Rasha Oudeh, 29. “There were just hot tears, like you cry when you know you can’t do anything to help.” One of the children comforted Raghad with the words: “Don’t cry, because your father is Saddam Hussein.” Her sister, Rana, left at 7am and Raghad went to bed minutes after. Waking four hours later, Raghad turned on the television and was shocked to see the “official” heavily edited execution footage. “She was alone, she had just woken up. Yesterday she told me, “Whenever I sit down for a minute, I keep having flashbacks, those execution pictures keep coming back to me.” President Mubarak of Egypt said that the way in which Saddam had been executed had “turned him into a martyr”.
Saddam’s lawyer Ziad al-Khosawneh, who has visited her, said: “She wept constantly. She left us several times to run to her room where we heard her sobbing. We are told she is sleeping throughout the day. She is depressed.”
Raghad told yesterday how she begged the International Red Cross to intervene and press his captors to allow her to say goodbye. “But they wouldn’t let me talk to him. He was probably never even told of my request,’ she said. “All I wanted was to tell him I miss him and love him as a father. My call was not allowed.”
Raghad has asked lawyers to return to her the few belongings her father had with him while on trial. She wants the white shirts and black jackets she had earlier sent him, the cigars that remain from the boxes he shared with his guards and his handwritten poetry. There are also Saddam’s memoirs and books he had requested from Raghad: grammar textbooks and, bizarrely, a copy of the book My Year in Iraq: The Struggle To Build A Future Of Hope – an account of America’s first year of occupation, written by Paul Bremer, who was head of the Coalition Provisional Authority until June 2004.
Saddam and his daughter had regularly exchanged letters. His were often heavily censored by American guards who constantly reminded him that he must write of family matters only. Raghad was careful to tell him only what he wanted to hear: that his grandchildren were well and that her life was good in Amman. But she remained the dutiful daughter – an associate of Raghad revealed how she had organised her father’s defence team.
“With no legal training at all she assembled her father’s defence team and tried to get him the best lawyers in the world. At one point there were 1,500 volunteers and she had to deal with them. She had power of attorney thrust upon her and has had to carry the burden for her father, whom she still loves. She does not see his tyranny or wish to discuss it”, the lawyer said.
Raghad has not, her aides insist, seen or asked to see the unofficial mobile-phone footage that records the chaotic moments of her father’s death. She has been seen in public once since her father’s execution, sporting Chanel sunglasses and a Socialist Party megaphone Monday at a rally in central Amman. A megaphone was thrust into her hand and she defied aides’ advice to address 500 pro-Saddam demonstrators. “God bless you, and I thank you for honouring Saddam the martyr,” she said. Raghad rarely speaks in public or to the media, acutely conscious of the unwritten deal with her Jordanian hosts that she would be granted asylum so long as she remained quiet and politically inactive.
King Abdullah II, a fellow Sunni, granted the women refuge when they fled Syria in mid-2003, shortly after Saddam’s regime fell and their brothers Uday and Qusay were killed in a shootout with US troops in Mosul. Grateful to the Jordanian regime for taking them in and supporters insist in the face of considerable scepticism providing their only means of financial support, the families also bask in the pro-Saddam feelings of many Jordanians from all classes.
Dr Abdullah Hneity, a skin specialist who treated Raghad’s children one month after Saddam’s capture, said he was impressed by how “brave” and “devout” she was. “I told her, I wish this had not happened, and she just said to me, “My father is a man of principle.” This feeling, despite Saddam’s brutal past, reflects Jordanian identification with Sunni brethren facing Iraq’s newly resurgent Shia majority, but also Saddam’s history of support for the Palestinians.
Technically Raghad remains on the new Shia-dominated Iraqi Government’s “most wanted” list since the summer of last year, amid allegations that the ill-gotten fortune amassed by Saddam was being channelled to insurgent groups.
The sisters deny funding insurgents, and an Iraqi government official in Baghdad told The Times last night: “We don’t consider her a person who requires our attention. I don’t think she is important enough. As far as I understand, she was funding insurgent groups until the Jordanians asked her to stop because it would contradict the conditions of her stay. They reminded her of their agreement. I think the Jordanians gave her advice.” Political analysts say that extradition to Iraq is unlikely. Adnan Hayajneh, Professor of International Relations at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, said that no matter what the external pressures on King Abdullah, he was unlikely to revoke his gesture, so long as they refrained from political activity.
“A decision was made by the King based on the culture of Arab hospitality,” he said. “Foreigners may not understand it but when you have a visitor, and say, “You are my guest under my protection and hospitality, you cannot kick them out, be it two days later or two years later. That is the end of it, regardless of what happened with Saddam Hussein’s execution. A commitment was made by the King himself.” She is constantly monitored by Jordanian intelligence and a unit of royal bodyguards surrounds her home and goes everywhere with her.
One of her favourite haunts is Dazzle, a hairdressing salon that she visits frequently with her daughter. It is Iraqi-owned and far from the town centre and Raghad is thought to feel comfortable there, with its high-security entry system. The salon offers full manicure, pedicure and waxing, but Raghad usually makes do with a facial and hairdo. Adjoining Dazzle is the Body Design women’s gymnasium that Raghad used to visit three times a week until one staff member told The Times “she received a death threat”.
Close aides say that Raghad and her family pray five times a day and go to Saudi Arabia regularly to perform umra” pilgrimage. Although she studied English Literature and speaks some French, Raghad found it a shock adjusting from the life of a protected woman member of the patriarchal household to become the effective head of the family. When Saddam was arrested, she had to hire an aide to teach her how to use the internet to follow his case.
“Saddam’s execution closes the door on her previous life. His trial kept her occupied, running an office near the university where she could meet regularly with lawyers. Since she watched that terrible scene of his death she has done little except sleep and cry until she is exhausted. Now she must look to the future for the first time, and be brave. She must stop just being Saddam’s daughter and find her true identity”, says her confidante.
Raghad has been heard to fantasise that she could be some sort of glamorous leader in exile, longing to lead her people but forbidden by cruel circumstances. But she has no support among Iraq’s Sunni tribesman, who respect her only as Saddam’s daughter. She tells those around her: “I want us all to live peacefully. I want a normal life.”
But because of her father’s legacy, and her unflinching loyalty to him, no one believes that is possible.
Tags: Celeb Lawyers, Little Saddam
