I only read part of this.............but the author says her superpower was the knowledge of both cultures, religions and languages.......................................one of the things that stood out from her descriptions of the American invasion of Iraq, was of how women were abused..........and how both American servicemen and Arabic men acted as if they owned women.............and how the Americans thought they owned Iraq..................and i found out, as she did, when u try to change that status quo, u will get hurt.............walking barefoot in my own country................i hate this place.............

e author, an American born in the Middle East, was able to use her unique vantage point to form an eyewitness account of events in Iraq after 9/11. To an extent, Barefoot in Baghdad is a love story, but to a larger extent, it is a story of a class society where women are expected to live and behave a certain way, according to local and historic customs. Some of those customs were “honor killings.”

Barefoot in Baghdad takes its title from a popular Iraqi-Turkman proverb that says, “Walk barefoot and the thorns will hurt you.” According to the author, it is often used as a warning to those who challenge societal norms. It could also be said that it is somewhat iconoclastic, or a breaker of traditions, which Omar indicated would make her journey not too easy. The author was quick to point out that she knew that she would be one of the people walking barefoot in a land scattered with thorns. This is a story of a clash of cultures, of women being ostracized for their beliefs and their unwillingness to adhere to long accepted customs.

The central characters in this book are the men and women of Iraq, and in particular, Yusuf, Fadi, and Mais, whom Omar worked closely with in her telling of heartrending stories of the women of Iraq, as they grapple with what it means to be female in a homeland that you no longer recognize.

A central character is Khanim Latif, leader of the Asuda Organization, who established one of the first Iraqi women’s shelters to house women from across the country. Her organization was the fact that her organization was one of the only shelters that would take the so-called “untouchable” cases, those cases dealing with “family honor.” Asuda would openly help young teenage girls who had been caught having premarital sex, rape victims, and women accused of adultery. One such teenage girl in this category was known as “Kalthoum.” The author admitted that she was captivated by Latif, who would intercede on behalf of Kalthoum. As a Muslim woman who had grown up in America, Latif became very instrumental to Omar in navigating through the dangers and customs of society in war-torn Iraq.

Latif’s office was stacked with photo albums of abused women. The author states that when high-level government officials denied the practice of honor crimes, Latif would pull out numerous photos of women burned alive or with gunshot wounds and silence her opposition immediately. “Honor killings happen,” Latif states in the book, “and they happen more than we would like to admit. However, they often happen because our communities have not learned to mediate around such a sensitive topic. No father wants to kill his daughter. Give him an excuse to maintain his honor in front of his tribe, and he will grab on to it.” That was the situation that the teenaged prostitute, Latif was faced with, and seems to be a central theme of the book.