3/16/2007

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Dr. Tahir Al-Bakaa is looking outside his office window on the 25th floor of One Beacon Hill Street and a small smile crosses his face.  It is a postcard-perfect day and
he is enjoying the moment, happy to be where he is.

And lucky to be alive.

“Coming to the United States has been a good experience for me,” says Al-Bakaa, a Visiting Scholar in the College of Arts & Sciences at Suffolk University.  “Now, I feel safe.”

The reality in Iraq

Al-Bakaa is the former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the former president of Al Mustansiriya University in Iraq.   He also served in Iraq’s National Assembly and Constitution Writing Committee.

Reflecting on his past, he talked about how the environment was so combative in Iraq that his life was constantly threatened, his every journey a living nightmare.  He was shot at many times and saw his body guard killed right before him.

“Wherever I went, I was always in danger,” he says.

Scholars at Risk offers protection

Following four attempts on his life, Al-Bakaa came to the United States in October of 2005 through the Scholars at Risk program, a national network that defends the human rights of persecuted scholars worldwide by arranging temporary positions for them in U.S. universities and colleges. 

He worked at Harvard University for one year before arriving at Suffolk in August of 2006, thanks to the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund.
Launched in 2002, the Fund provides fellowships for scholars and academics who are threatened in their home country or region by providing temporary fellowships, allowing them to visit another institution where they may safely continue their teaching or research activities.

While at Suffolk, Al-Bakaa, 57, writes and does research in the areas of education and history.  He sometimes lectures (using an interpreter) and plans to participate in Suffolk’s 2007 Academic Conference.  “The people at Suffolk are very friendly and everyone is willing to help me,” he says.

A man on a mission

Al-Bakaa was educated at Baghdad University (Ph.D. in Iranian History, master’s degree in the History of Palestine, and a bachelor’s degree in the History of Baghdad).  The author of six books and 58 research papers, he is now working on a new book that focuses on the current situation in Iraq.

One of the biggest challenges facing Al-Bakaa since entering a brave new world has been learning the English language.  He takes an English as a Second Language class four mornings each week at the Community Learning Center in Cambridge.  He also works at improving his English, he says, “by being on the computer until 10 o’clock every night.”

Tahir Al-Bakaa, who lives in Cambridge with his wife, Kholud, and the youngest of their three children, Ali, 17, a senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, is a man on a mission.

“I want to learn more about English and the American culture,” he says.  “Then I want to change the culture between the American people and the Iraqi people so everyone can come together.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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