Someone I respect: Desiree Fairooz
Published by hasan October 27th, 2007 in War, human rights, justice.Standing on the right-hand side of Condoleezza Rice is “freedom fighter” Desiree Fairooz. No comments needed for this little episode that happened on Oct 24th. Fairooz was yelling out, “You have the blood of millions of Iraqis on your hands!” into Rice’s face.
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The following profile of Desiree Fairooz is taken from the Fort Worth Weekly :
Desiree Fairooz was once a full-time teacher. Now she spends her days protesting the war in Iraq.
By BRICEIDA CERVANTES
Fairooz: ‘Americans need to take time out of their schedules to … take part in their democracy.’
Instead of standing in front of a chalkboard and explaining lessons to her students in Grand Prairie, Desiree Fairooz recently spent some time in Washington, D.C., standing in front of the office of the U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, explaining her causes to the Capitol Police.
No apples for the former Grand Prairie ISD schoolteacher there, only scratches on her wrists left by the thick, white plastic ties that police use as disposable handcuffs.
It’s all part of the life that Fairooz has chosen, but one that she has been groomed for. She credits her activism to her progressive-minded aunt and the teachers at her Catholic high school.
The arrest occurred while the 50-year-old fourth-grade teacher was taking part in a protest held by the women-initiated national peace group Code Pink.
While holding up banners that read “Stop Funding the War†and “Don’t Buy Bush’s War†and chilling images of death and destruction in Iraq, Fairooz and other pink-clad women chanted, sang clever songs, and quipped slogans.
“This war is based on lies,†she told the Weekly. “Young and middle-aged people are dying for a lie, and I could not stay at home any longer while crimes are being committed in my name. We Americans are responsible for atrocities.â€
Fairooz has been an anti-war activist for about five years, but only recently did she quit teaching, pack her things, and head for Washington to work full time on fighting the war. “I believe that one person can make a difference,†said Fairooz, an admirer of Gandhi’s brand of civil disobedience. “Each person can make peace.â€
She moved into Code Pink’s Washington, D.C., house and started cashing in her retirement funds to maintain her “protester lifestyle.â€
She joined Code Pink about three years ago after seeing photos of women protesters dressed in pink in front of the White House. “I Googled [Code Pink] and found chapters in Fort Worth and Arlington and became involved with them,†she said. Her first action (as each individual protest is identified) took place in March 2005, when she joined other demonstrators in commemorating the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
In Washington, Fairooz is the “house mom.†She handles reservations and logistics and ensures that visiting members are provided with meals, clean linens, and a witty host. Everything is paid for by benefactors. Without their help, she said, she wouldn’t have been able to relocate to Washington.
Local Code Pink member Hillary Blake met Fairooz at a protest in front of Congressman Joe Barton’s office. She said Fairooz is a caring, considerate person who has the ability to connect with other people’s pain. “I remember once we went to Crawford, and [Fairooz] stayed behind putting crosses on the side of the road.â€
Fairooz wants the Iraqi war to end not only to save the lives of American soldiers, but also because of what the war is doing to the women and children of Iraq who have been displaced, abused, or massacred. “Our troops are committing atrocities. They don’t belong there, and keeping them there exacerbates the problem. Occupying a foreign land is not American.â€
While plenty of people, including Fairooz, strongly support the troops, she also strongly supports “voiceless women and children of Iraq.â€
A recent report jointly produced by Code Pink and Global Exchange, a human-rights organization, described horrendous conditions for women in Iraq, mainly due to infrastructure destruction, insecurity and fear, and restricted access to jobs and education. The report lays part of the blame on the United States and refers to stories told by Iraqi women of being sexually and violently assaulted by U.S. military personnel, especially in detainment centers. “I know what it feels like to be a foreigner in your own country,†she said.
Native American, African-American, German, and Irish, Fairooz said she never felt quite accepted growing up and was frequently subjected to racial discrimination. “I remember taking the city bus cross-town to school and being taunted because I was light-skinned,†she said.
She remembers how black people thought she was white, and white people thought she was Hispanic — the Hispanic community ultimately accepted her.
At a young age, Fairooz’ family broke up, and she was separated from her two sisters. She went to live with her grandmother in Los Angeles while her sisters were sent to a Catholic home. She speaks of her childhood with both enthusiasm and sadness. “I felt guilty for many years,†she said of her separation from her sisters.
Her sister Laverne Johnson said that at an early age, Fairooz had lots of responsibilities “dumped†on her yet maintained her poise and was always glad to take on anything put before her. “I can remember when things were going bad at the orphanage for [sister] Jackie and me, Desiree encouraged us and told us that life is hard, but it is what you make of it. She was our role model.â€
Fairooz’ aunt, an Immaculate Heart of Mary nun taught by radicals, was also influential. As was one of Fairooz’ history teachers, a Spanish nun who constantly challenged young Desiree, eventually shaping her love for academia. “The nuns there were the first order of nuns to do away with the habit — the Pope wasn’t too happy with that.â€
Following high school, Fairooz completed her bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. In her junior year, she moved to Mexico City as part of an exchange program offered by the school.
She said that it was there she first realized that what gets reported in the United States about other countries is not always what happens there. “That was the first sign that news is not always the truth, and I learned to take the press with a grain of salt.â€
After college, she went to work for Mexicana Airlines, where she was able to make good use of her fluency in Spanish and where she met her husband, a U.S. citizen born and raised in Bahrain. She eventually moved to Texas and worked for Mexicana at DFW International Airport. In 1993, Fairooz was laid off after 15 years of service and returned to school to earn a teaching certificate. “I wanted to serve children in the Latino community,†she said. She worked as a children’s librarian for the Fort Worth Public Library for the next five years while earning her master’s degree in library science. “I absolutely loved my job, but I could not fit in my activism,†she said.
Fairooz began teaching second- and fourth-graders but realized that her growing commitment to activism wouldn’t fit a school schedule either.
Fairooz has been involved with other organizations in the Metroplex such as the Dallas Peace Center and the Arlington Peace Center. She has also taken part in many pre-war demonstrations, marches, and anti-war actions, and has participated in a string of candlelight vigils.
“What is unique about Desiree is that it is not often that you see someone who is gainfully employed leave her work to work on activism full time,†said Trish Major, Community Director of the Dallas Peace Center. “Very often when people volunteer, they are usually out of a job and then suddenly get a job and stop volunteering.â€
Major describes Fairooz as a true believer in the idea that one person can make a difference. “Most people are just lip-service, but when Desiree goes to her actions, she is all there, making the most of it.â€
Fairooz said she wishes more people would get involved, educate themselves, and demand more coverage on what is happening in Iraq — and insist on the truth.
She said that people who criticize what she is doing frequently talk about the need to “get them†in Iraq before they “get us over here.†Yet, she said, “They can’t tell you who ‘they’ are.†She believes this attitude is a result of what she calls brainwashing by the Bush administration, using 9/11 and Saddam Hussein to instill fear in Americans.
“Americans,†she said, “need to take time out of their schedules to be part of the political process and take part in their democracy.â€
14 Responses to “Someone I respect: Desiree Fairooz”
- 1 Pingback on Feb 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 am
- 2 Pingback on Mar 20th, 2008 at 1:08 am
A remarkable woman indeed. We could all learn something from her.
Just found this video on Youtube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NSgXWAfH9ec
(also noteworthy: check out the last ten seconds of the video after all the “action” was over - you could overhear Condolleeza Rice talking talking to the person next to her in a very odd way.)
Thanks Hassan for the post and the video. No surprises, Condoleeza Rice is an odd character so you can expect anything from her. The funny thing is that her name means “with sweetness”! Can you think of anyhting sweet about this woman?
Butterfly -
absolutely nothing sweet about her and her gang.
Fairooz makes a bad impression in these pictures. She looks like a crazy, mentally imbalanced drama queen with the blood on her hands and that open-mouthed fanatical expression on her face. I am absolutely repelled by what I see in these pictures. She did not help her cause at all. In fact, just the opposite.
It’s like burning your bridges behind you when desperation makes you do foolish things. Normal people probably won’t take her seriously if they saw these pictures. They may agree, but they will move away from her as though she’s seriously crazy. Sorry for being so blunt, but that’s human nature.
In any case, it’s too late to withdraw from Iraq. We have to fix what we broke. If we leave Iraq the way it is now, it will get worse for the Iraqi people. Let’s hang in there and see if the promising progress being made right now gets even better. It will be years from now before we really know if Iraq can be fixed and made whole.
Also, about the profiling in Japan, I am sad to hear this happening to you and all others in your position. Japan should have used a little more common sense and sensitivity about this issue, especially regarding foreign students and residents. But the Japanese tend to be a little paranoid, and I say this as a Japanese-American who has studied my ancestral land for years and I know how stupid they can be sometimes. Okay, okay, a lot of times.
Hope life gets better for you soon. My best wishes to you.
Keiko,
Thanks for your comment. I can see why some would say that Fairooz had made a very bad impression in that moment she jumped out in front of Condoleeza - I’ve noticed the bloggers from the U.S. who have written about this topic and were mostly shocked by how close she got to C. Rice and how “crazy” she looked”. But, in a sense, she managed to express herself and say what she wanted to say in a very unusual way and definitely got some attention for yelling out “war criminal” and “you have the blood of millions on your hands”.
But the thing is, Fairooz was not being violent. She did have her bloodied hands near Rice’s face but did not attack. She knew that she and the supporters with her were probably going to get arrested and then released later. What disturbed me was how - if you watched - how the protesters in the audience were also all dragged out (and quite violently) even though they did not approach Rice. They were arrested for being against Rice’s policies and that in itself is against people’s right to express their opinions.
In my opinion, Fairooz was definitely being civilized in the way she “protested” the War - can you imagine what an Iraqi who has lost everything would react if he/she had the chance to come face to face with Rice? It’s a lot more complicated that just a “crazy” woman trying to do something “crazy”.
As for the case of fingerprints and photos of all foreigners visiting Japan; it got a little more complicated last night. I watched a press-conference with the Minister of Justice last night on tv (still couldn’t find the clip on YouTube). He basically said, “I received a warning from a friend of mine right before the Bali Bombings in 2005. I think that profiling foreigners is important because terrorists have passed through our airports before.” (He later came back on tv an hour later to apologize for being “misleading” and that he said that he “didn’t know” that the Bali bombings had already occurred three weeks earlier and that he was just being warned by a friend of going there.) Quite a minister, huh? What upset me the most was him saying, “terrorists have already passed through our airports” - meaning what? How could you know someone is a terrorist and let them into your country? If you had prior knowledge of them being terrorists, you should ARREST them and not let them pass through. Again, I somehow felt that he was targeting a particular ethnicity for “coming into Japan” and just branding them all as terrorists. What about the underground gas attacks in Tokyo in the late 1990s? That was a terrorist attack and not carried out by any foreigners. In fact, the only large-scale attack by foreigners that I could think of that happened in Japan is the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic-bombing in 1945. Then again, this policy of taking fingerprints and photos has - apparently - been discussed by the top officials since 2004 and they finally agreed on it. The UK will start doing the same for all non-European visitors in the beginning of 2008. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the beginning of a global trend and the idea of it just makes me feel uneasy.
This piece of news came AFTER all the headlines on tv were over. Yesterday’s top headlines, of course, were 1. The Boston Red Sox winning the World Series. 2. Some car accident. 3. Some woman being on trial for killing her own 9-year old daughter and her daughter’s friend in March. I guess human rights isn’t put in the forefront here on tv, which is quite sad.
Keiko,
Here’s the article I was looking for:
I got the following lines from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=amFDgzcptPm0&refer=japan
Fukuda Warns Japan Minister About Remark on Al-Qaeda (Update2)
By Stuart Biggs and Takashi Hirokawa
Enlarge Image/Details
Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda cautioned Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama over comments he made suggesting a “friend of a friend of his” is a member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Hatoyama spoke in “an inappropriate way without taking into account where he was,” Fukuda said at a session of parliament today. “I asked Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura to caution him.”
Hatoyama told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan yesterday “a friend of a friend of his” is an al-Qaeda member involved in bombings on Bali and that he was warned to stay away from the Indonesian island because it was being targeted for attack. Hatoyama did not specify which attack he was referring to. Bali has suffered other attacks since terrorists killed 202 people in a bombing at the beach resort of Kuta in October 2002.
Hatoyama retracted the remarks at a later press conference, saying his friend received the warning about the 2002 bombings, and that he heard about it months after the attack, Kyodo News reported. Hatoyama made the comment in response to a question about the introduction of biometric fingerprinting of foreigners entering Japan from Nov. 20.
Passports, Moustaches
“I have never met this person but up until two or three years ago he seems to have been visiting Japan so often,” Hatoyama said through a translator at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club yesterday. “Every time this person enters Japan he uses different passports and moustaches and therefore customs officials are unable to recognize him. It is undesirable for security reasons that such people can enter Japan so easily.”
Hatoyama said at the later press conference at the Justice Ministry that he heard the anecdotes from his friend, according to the Kyodo report.
“It’s very regrettable that he gave an impression Japan’s justice minister knows such terrorists,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura told reporters earlier today. “I think his remarks were careless, so I warned him before the Cabinet meeting.”
The Indonesian government has blamed Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah for the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians. Hambali, the group’s alleged operations chief, denied links to al-Qaeda at a U.S. tribunal in Guantanamo Bay.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net ; Takashi Hirokawa in Tokyo at thirokawa@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: October 30, 2007 04:24 EDT
and from BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7067450.stm
Japan minister in al-Qaeda claim
Justice minister Kunio Hatoyama during a press conference, 29/10
Mr Hatoyama supports plans to screen foreigners rigorously
A Japanese politician has attempted to justify plans to fingerprint foreigners by claiming he knows an al-Qaeda member who entered the country illegally.
Justice minister Kunio Hatoyama said the man was a “friend of a friend” who was involved in a bomb attack on Bali.
He produced no evidence to back up his claim, but said it showed the need for stricter checks on overseas visitors.
Later he appeared to backtrack, stressing he had not met the man and could not verify his friend’s claims.
‘Rights violation’
From 20 November almost all foreign visitors and overseas workers will be photographed and fingerprinted as they enter the country.
The measures have already proved controversial, with Amnesty International labelling the system as discriminatory and “a violation of basic human rights”.
But Mr Hatoyama used the story of the al-Qaeda member to argue that the threat of terrorism justified the new measures.
“My friend’s friend is a member of al-Qaeda. I have never met him, but I heard that two or three years ago he came to Japan several times,” he told a press conference.
“The fact is that such foreign people can easily enter Japan. In terms of security, this is not a preferable situation.”
The minister also claimed his friend had warned him of the Bali bombing - although there have been two major terrorist attacks on the Indonesian island in recent years and he did not specify which one he was referring to.
Later, Mr Hatoyama cast doubt on all of these claims, saying he had been “unclear and misleading”.
He denied he had been warned of any attack on Bali before it had happened.
“I myself am not a friend of anyone who is thought to be a member of [al-Qaeda] and I don’t know them personally. I can’t verify the authenticity of what my friend said.”
Japanese officials plan to check foreigners’ fingerprints against international and domestic crime databases to root out potential terrorists and people with criminal records.
Certain permanent residents, such as ethnic Koreans and Chinese, will be exempt, alongside diplomatic visitors and children.
Hasan, only a certain type of Iraqi would have treated Rice in that threatening way. I think normal Iraqi citizens, no matter how much they suffered and lost, no matter how much they hated the war, wouldn’t do what she did. They are a resilient people. They endure and pray and do their best to survive, but to go off the deep end like Fairooz is not something most Iraqis would do. Again, I’m talking about “normal” Iraqis.
Thanks for the interesting Japan article. Also, I agree that people from the Middle East are being targeted as security risks based on their ethnicity. In their place, I would feel angry, vulnerable and even hated. Not good feelings. I think it’s going to get worse in the coming years, so “gambatte.”
Keiko,
Thanks again for your comments. I’m not so sure about your point of view on how Iraqis would see the situation but I respect your opinion.
The reason I find myself taking a different stance on this is because of what Rice seems to symbolize: the decision to continue to justify this war and cause more problems in the already troubled Middle East. This war - just like any other war - only resulted in more violence and death. It was the start of something that we might never see the end of. The Iraqis know this better than anyone.
this is a woman that many should strive to be like. i applaud her efforts to change the minds of many.
while living in denton, before coming to bahrain, they were holding protests in the small town square and many times me and hashim would go there, honk and such. i only wish i had taken part. but since we were about to move and so much was going on, i concentrated on that part of my life.
sadly, even w/ this woman and her efforts, i don’t think it’ll change anything. i would say that many will think she’s crazy and ignore it or laugh about it.
i saw something above in someone’s comment that you’re being racially profiled. i don’t have time to read further since the baby just woke up from his nap… but i’m sorry to hear this.
interesting blog you have here!
um naief -
I am actually quite happy to hear your take on this. Most of the blog entries that I have come across in regards to this little episode tended to have a conservative spin, saying that Desiree Fairooz is practically insane and a threat to society with her rebellious thoughts. All am I arguing here is that it’s inspiring to see someone who as making a stand for what they believe in - regardless of whether their cause is something we may or may not subscribe to.
Lately and with all the confusion we see on the news, I find the boundaries of freedom of expression to be a little wishy-washy but I personally believe that Fairooz has not crossed those boundaries and has the right to make her stand.
I love You to much Desiree Fairooz!
I love You and John Lennon to.
I am one Atheist and Pacifist to, from Europe.
I hate a war, I hate the Bible, I hate the Jesus,
same as Lennon. G.W. Bush like the Bible and Jesus!
Psalm: 144.