Fear, hope for future mark lives of Iraqi ASU students

 by Dan O'Connor
 published on Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Kaitlin Ochenrider / THE STATE PRESS

FOCUSED: Industrial Engineering senior Mohammed Alzubaidi takes careful notes in one of his many engineering classes.

For industrial engineering senior Mohammed Alzubaidi, it's not about what his degree will do to better his life when he graduates in May — it's about what he can do with it to improve the lives of others in Iraq.

Born and raised outside of Nasiriya, Iraq, until the age of 8, Mohammed said he strives to improve his impoverished native nation that receives an average of three hours of electricity and running water a day, as his extended family members still living there tell him.

When Mohammed moved to the U.S. in 1994 as a refuge to be reunited with his father, who fled Iraq after being jailed for 6 months as a political activist, he said he was awestruck by the plush living conditions.

"I saw students in my classroom, all with their own pencils and not fighting over a single piece of paper, and couldn't believe it," he said of his first day in a second-grade U.S. classroom.

This surreal impression followed Mohammed through high school when he and his family were granted citizenship, he said. But he always clung to life's less-glamorous realities, which were embedded in his mind from the Gulf War.

And though he has lived in America for 14 years, he said he hopes to return some of the comforts his American comrades take for granted to the people in his homeland.

"I think all [Iraqis] out here getting educated feel we have an obligation to our land," he said. "I am an Iraqi, I plan on going home and contributing as an American-Iraqi. Everyone out here has something to contribute with a means and a talent."

Mohammed said he envisions Iraq as having the potential to become a flourishing land, equipped with adequate medical facilities, universities and amenities for its people — all areas he and his brother, Hayder, strive to advance with their talents.
Hayder is a 2006 ASU alumnus and current medical student at St. Matthews' University School of Medicine in the Cayman Islands with his wife, Sara Hasan, a fellow Iraqi native. They said they hope to use their medical expertise to help develop Iraqi hospitals that have been damaged from extensive battle.

The trio said they supported the war in Iraq since its beginning, but all agreed that the U.S. government's efforts should be focused more on the living conditions and safety of the citizens and less on political and financial gains.

Hayder said he vividly remembers March 19, 2003, as he sat glued to his television with his family, learning of the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Iraq.

"One conviction that I had was that President Bush wasn't doing this for the love of the Iraqi people, there had to be an ulterior motive," Hayder said. "Iraqis were jubilant, because finally, the nightmare is over. So you could say that I had both feelings — I was happy about Saddam being pushed out, and I was afraid, not only for my family's safety, but for my country's fate."

Mohammed agreed with his brother's statement and said that he fears for the majority of his extended family in Iraq that deals with the realities of war and terror on a daily basis.

"It gives you a heightened sense of fear that tomorrow might be it," he said. "You can only hope that things take a turn for the best."

Mohammed added that while fear has become a reality of daily life, he maintains hope for a better future.

"If you come here today to study, you go home and help your people with a project that is actually meaningful," he said. "I hope to open a college, a full-fledged university. I owe that much."

Reach the reporter at: daniel.oconnor@asu.edu.