Media for social change

Ala Bashir is a prominent Iraqi surgeon, painter and sculptor. He is well known in his country for the thousands of plastic-surgery operations he performed on Iraqi soldiers during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

During a ceremony to honour distinguished Iraqi professionals, Saddam Hussein shook hands with him, and thanked him for his public service. The president told the surgeon that he highly admired an artist who also the bore the name Ala Bashir.

Saddam was surprised when one of the attendants told him, "Mr President, the fine artist and the great surgeon are one and the same person".

The president held the multi-talented Dr Bashir in such high esteem that he eventually made him a part of his inner circle.

Dr Bashir does not regret the services he rendered to Saddam. To him, he says, Saddam was a patient just like any another.

"To a doctor, an illness is an illness. The status of the patient is immaterial. Doctors only see a human being in need of treatment," he said.

Adviser's role

Be that as it may, Dr Bashir was one of the very few people that Saddam would turn to for advice on political issues.

"Even Saddam's brothers were surprised at the level of respect Saddam had for me. They used to seek my help whenever they needed to tell him something that they knew he would not like to hear," Dr Bashir told Aljazeera.net.

History twisted

Having become familiar with the politics of Iraq, Dr Bashir found himself morally obliged to document a critical part of his country's history.

After Iraq's museums and archives were looted and destroyed following the US-led invasion, he said, he came across a great deal of false information as well as willingness to rewrite the country's history to suit certain ends.

"I was reading an unbelievable amount of falsehood about Iraq, and thought it was my responsibility to tell what I know," Dr Bashir said. "I was reading and hearing information which seemed to come from people's imaginations and guesswork."

His book is based on Iraq's history spanning centuries. He believes that what happened in Iraq cannot be separated from its myths.

"Nowadays, newspapers and books speak about bloodshed in Iraq as if it's an unusual thing for the country, whereas the truth is very different.