Although satellites were up in the sky since the sixties and it was known that observation satellites can identify a coin lying on the ground, the „Photograph Prohibited“ sign, or as we called it “no photo” sign, was a popular one in Iraq. No government building was so unimportant that it wouldn’t deserve its own sign. But the most confusing thing about the no-photo-policy was that even if the sign wasn’t there, taking a photo in a public place could make a suspect out of you in a second. One click, and you would find yourself accused of crimes like: damaging the image of the country, espionage or threatening the national security.
Most people affected by this law, besides the foreigners, were the students of architecture.
One of those students was my sister. I remember the day she and her colleague came home from a visit to Kadhumiya. They were exhausted and upset but also had to laugh a lot while telling my mother and me what an adventures day they had.
They were working on a project for college about modernizing the part of Baghdad they choose. Their choice fell on Kadhumiya, the part of the city with the golden Mosque, which holds the shrine of the Imam Musa Al-Kadhuim, the nearby bazar and the surrounding old residential area.
Aware of the laws, the college used to provide its students with a photographing and data gathering permission for the research and documentation part of such assignments.
Armed with the permission paper they walked through the bazar heading to the mosque, stopping here and there to take photos. My sister had a big canon reflex camera, with a giant zoom. Alone the zoom was enough reason to make her a suspect of espionage. On top of that was their outfit that didn’t really help to appease their suspicious appearance. They wore T-Shirts, Jeans and trainers and over it black traditional Abayas. The Abayas were borrowed and it was obviously for the way they wore it, trying hard to keep them on the heads and shoulders, that they were not familiar with wearing an Abaya.
Well, it didn’t take long. Soon, a man, he said he was a security officer, appeared and told them: „What on earth are you doing here? Don’t you know that it is strictly forbidden to take photos in this area?“
The young ladies tried to explain to him that they are students working on a project and showed him the permission they had from the college. But no matter what they said, the man was unimpressed and he insisted to take them to the main office to clear the matter. He asked them to get into his car, but my sister and her friend refused, since they couldn’t be sure of his identity as a secret service officer. He could be lying just to make them go with him.
The man tried to persuade them to join him in a taxi, but they made it clear that they will not go in any kind of car with him. They suggested walking but he said it was too far to go on foot. Almost losing his patience he had the glorious idea to stop a passing by horse carriage and asked them to get in. They finally agreed. At the end it is easier to jump out from a moving carriage then from a car in motion.
Few minutes later they arrived at a small official building. It had a sign saying „District Security Office“ at the entrance. They went in and he asked them to wait in the lobby. It took him a while before he came back an asked the girls to follow him to his supervisor’s office. Their hearts were beating strongly, and their stomachs ached while they walked behind him. They entered the office were a middle-aged man was sitting behind the desk.
He was looking at the college permission lying in front of him, then raised his eyes and gazed at them with a serious expression on his face. He asked them some questions about their project and their studies. He started to tell them how important the national security was and what harm could be caused by photographing sensitive places.
After a long speech, the supervisor, who seemed more open minded than his employee, handed them their permission and wished them good luck for their project. But before they stepped out of his office, he told them with a hardly noticeable smile on this face: „Girls, you are like my daughters, take this advice from me: don’t go around making photos of the city. There are a lot of people out there who could use them to harm our country.”
You can imagine how happy and relieved my mother and I were, hearing that this story ended in such a harmless way.