Raincoast Books
Available: 04/26/05
6 x 9 · 296 pages
978-1-55192-735-0
CDN $24.95 · pb

Canadian Title

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Dancing in the No-Fly Zone

A Woman’s Journey through Iraq

Hadani Ditmars

As Iraq continues to weather violent occupation, theocratic thuggism and civil strife, Hadani Ditmars’ book Dancing in the No-Fly Zone serves as an eerily prescient tribute to a culture and a people at the breaking point.

This Globe and Mail Top 100 Book for 2005 offers a unique perspective on Iraq, before and after the U.S. invasion.

When Hadani Ditmars first went to Iraq in 1997, for the New York Times, she was shocked at what she saw. Six years of the worst sanctions ever inflicted on a modern nation had brought the people to their knees. Yet there was so much more to the “cradle of civilization” than misery and suffering. In the midst of despair she found art, beauty, architecture, music. She discovered orchestras who played impassioned symphonies on wrecked instruments, playwrights who pushed the limits of censorship, artists who spent their last dinars on paint and canvas, families who still celebrated weddings by dancing to makam—traditional love songs.

Ditmars travelled to Iraq again and again, reporting on every aspect of life. In September 2003, she returned to Baghdad to find the people she had met over the years and see what had become of them since the U.S. “liberation.” Dancing In The No-Fly Zone is the story of that trip, interwoven with tales from her earlier visits and of the people she met along the way: actors and artists, mercenaries and businessmen, street kids and sufis, even the “king in waiting.” It includes a visit to Abu Ghraib prison, in which Ditmars is given a tour of the Saddam-era execution chamber by the U.S. general who was later dismissed after the abuse scandal broke.

As the situation worsens and the violence intensifies, Ditmars spends a miraculous evening with a group of Iraqis who sing and dance along to a performance of makam. A people who have suffered so much yet maintain such resilience deserve to have the full depth of their humanity portrayed. Hadani Ditmars captures this spirit in Dancing in the No-Fly Zone.

Harpers contributor and author Paul William Roberts called the book: “A wholly remarkable and exemplary document, mandatory reading on the subject ... written with elegance, wisdom and compassionate humor ... a unique triumph.”

Former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday commented: “Excellent ... this book gives important insight into the Iraq that the author remembers, knows and dreams of emerging from a long nightmare.”

Boyd Tonkin, the Independent said, “Not just another batch of war stories, Ditmars’ fine reports from Iraq reveal aspects of the country — both pre- and post-invasion — that the battlefield junkies overlook. From the comic actor who adores Mr Bean and the conductor who brings Berlioz to Baghdad to the artists and cabaret stars, she seeks out Iraq’s dogged creative spirits, and touches places in the nation’s soul that horror – headlines never reach.”

Hadani Ditmars is a Canadian journalist whose work has been published in the New York Times, London Independent, The Globe and Mail, Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Newsweek and broadcast on the BBC and CBC radio and television. Her Ms. Magazine essay on Iraqi women has been adopted for several university courses. She has been reporting from the Middle East since 1992 and has been on assignment in Iraq six times since 1997.