Avin Taha: half Czech, half Iraqi - a painful test of identity
Avin Taha is a confident, poised and articulate young graduate from the Masaryk University in the Czech second city of Brno, where she studied sociology and journalism. She is half Czech and half Iraqi Kurd -her Czech mother is a music teacher, her father an Iraqi engineer who studied in the 1970s in Prague. Most of Avin's early childhood was spent in Baghdad, which she remembers with nostalgia and where she still has many relatives. For people like Avin Taha the current war is a particularly painful time.
"I'm afraid now, it is the biggest feeling because my family, just now, is in Baghdad, and, simply said, I'm afraid."
You spent part of your childhood here in Prague and part of your childhood in Baghdad...
"Yeah. When I was small we lived in Baghdad, when I was six years old we came back to the Czech Republic, so, I feel, not only that I am Czech, but I feel I am Iraqi. It's a strong feeling towards Iraq."
And how do you feel now that the Czech Republic is, at least in a passive capacity, taking part in the invasion of Iraq?
"I'm not very happy about that, but, I must say that the majority of Czechs are against the war: my friends, all of them, they don't agree with that. So, I don't care what the politicians say or do, for me the important thing are the people around me."
From the time that you spent in Iraq - it's a totalitarian regime, Saddam Hussein is a dictator - do you feel some degree of sympathy with those who say 'Let's go in and get rid of him'...
"I think that certainly Saddam is a man who should go away, who should be put away. But, the question is if this the right way to do that, and if this is the right moment. It should have been done in the past, everyone knows that. And now, when Iraq started co-operating, I don't think that this was really a good idea and it will have, maybe, bad consequences for all of us. The bad thing about all this is that the US has done it themselves, and there was no bigger international coalition. I think Saddam is bad, he should be put away, but, it should be done with the help of other countries. Because, if it is not like that, people will feel it's undemocratic, and that's not good."
You're of Kurdish origin: what is the attitude of most Kurds in Iraq, and in exile as well?
"The attitude of the Kurds is very, very difficult, you know, it's not an easy situation for them. On the one hand they've got bad experience with Saddam, so it's quite natural that they want him to be put away. On the other hand, they feel they are Iraqis, and, they are afraid. They don't want war."
