Your Call 021009 What do we need to know about Iraq?

As Iraq moves through a critical phase, what do we need to know? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Professor Nadje Al-Ali, author of What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq, and Dahr Jamail, a Bay Area independent journalist who recently returned to Baghdad. With the recent election described as a success by Washington, what is daily life like in Iraq? How have the lives of women been affected by so many dead and imprisoned Iraqi men? And what's the status of U.S. troop withdrawal? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Nadje Al-Ali, director of the Gender Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London.

Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist

Click to Listen: What do we need to know about Iraq?

Nadje Al-Ali's speaking events:
When: February 10, 2009 [ 4pm ]
Where: UC BERKELEY GENDER AND WOMEN'S STUDIES COLLOQUIUM LECTURE

When: February 11, 2009 [ 7pm ]
Where: LA PEA CULTURAL CENTER WITH MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE

When: February 12, 2009 [11am-12.30pm]
Where: CODEPINK TALK AT FIRST UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH SAN FRANCISCO

When: February 12, 2009 [ 5-6:30pm ]
Where: UC BERKELEY CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

When: February 12, 2009 [ 8pm ]
Where: GREEN ARCADE BOOKSTORE

Your Call 070308 Women's Rights in the Middle East

What is life like for women in the Middle East, where they've been active agents of change for many decades? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with an Iraqi and a Palestinian about women's rights. What role have women played in their national struggle? What challenges do they face? And how have the policies of the U.S. government affected their struggle? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Nadje Al-Ali is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK.

Isis Nusair, International Studies and Women's Studies Programs at Denison University

Click to Listen: Women's Rights in the Middle East

Your Call 061908 World Refugee Day

What kind of a welcome does the Bay Area put out for refugees? World Refugee Day is Friday, and on the next Your Call we'll mark the occasion by talking to refugees who have been relocated to our communities. So often refugees are shown as far away victims of disasters or some other country's failings. We'll speak with two refugees of the Iraq war who just arrived in San Francisco. What kind of welcome are they finding? Who else is in our neighborhoods, fleeing our foreign policy choices? It's Your Call with me Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Lavinia Limn in Washington D.C.
President of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Lavinia Limn has more than 30 years of experience working on behalf of refugees and immigrants. During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Limon served as the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services, designing and implementing programs to assist newly arriving refugees in achieving economic and social self-sufficiency.

Ali Muhammed Kareem in San Francisco
Ali arrived on Feb 4th. He was a logistics supervisor and interpreter and was caught in a bomb blast. He had several surgeries during his 16 month stay in Jordan. He is fluent in English and has been asked to write on article on his experiences for the IRC SF Newsletter. He is working as an Office Administrator at Mary Green Company in San Francisco.

Anmar Al Rikibi in San Francisco
Amnar arrived on March 10th. He is a Civil Engineer who worked for Bechtel in Iraq. He spent 18 months in the UAE. He works as a Project Engineer with a small engineering construction firm in the East Bay.

Bir Thapa
Chairman of the Bhutanese American Community Center in Alameda. The local Bhutanese Community is one of only a very few in the U.S. and very small- only about 35 people. All of the Bhutanese that we met have here for between 3 and 7 years. None of them came as refugees because there was no access to the U.S. Refugee Program until recently but were granted political asylum. We are working very closely with them in the resettlement of Bhutanese refugees who are coming from refugee camps in Nepal. They are being resettled in the East Bay. Over the summer months IRC expects about 75 to 100 new arrivals.

Brian Adkins
Resource Developer of the International Rescue Committee's San Francisco office. IRC's local office was established in 1975 to serve the needs of Southeast Asian refugees who were airlifted to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon.

Click to Listen: World Refugee Day

Your Call 031808 Coming Home

The Iraq war has had a transformative and sometimes devastating effect on communities. In Iraq, entire neighborhoods have been destroyed by bombing and street fighting; and even when the houses remain standing, in many places, a whole new group of people now lives in them. In the U.S., soldiers with serious wounds - physical and mental - have returned to their families and communities, but often had a hell of a time putting the pieces back together. Are there similarities in what they need to heal and move forward? Who should be held accountable for what's happened to them?

Guests:
Laura Gomez
Operation Iraqi Freedom Returning Veterans Coordinator for the Veterans Administration hospital in Palo Alto.

Dana Graber in Amman, Jordan
From the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Ramon Leal
Served two tours of duty in Iraq

Harb al Mukhtar
Journalist in Baghdad

Click to Listen: Coming Home

Your Call 100207 The Fate of Iraqi Refugees

What is life like for Iraqi refugees? On the next Your Call, we’ll have a conversation about the fate of displaced Iraqis with two activists who recently returned from the Middle East. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reports that more than 4.2 million Iraqis have been forced out of their homes. More than half have sought refuge in neighboring countries. How are they coping with their forced exile? And what is the role of the United States as the occupying force? It’s Your Call, with me, Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:
Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi political analyst who established a grassroots organization that provides humanitarian and political aid to Iraqi internally displaced persons.

Noah Baker Merrill has been living and working among Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria and coordinates the Direct Aid Initiative, a project of the Electronic Iraq news and analysis website.

Click to Listen: The Fate of Iraqi Refugees