From Bagdhad, with love
Idris Al-Oboudi with two of his kids, Jenahn and Jassim. Photos courtesy of Idris Al-Oboudi by Alene Tchekmedyian Idris Al-Oboudi remembers the day he left Baghdad, on Friday, September 15, 1978. It was a risky move that could have cost him his life. Calm down. Stop sweating, he thought. He was drenched under the maroon suit and tie he wore, exhausted because he hadn’t slept the night before. He had $600 and a visitor’s visa in his pocket, but he had no intention of coming back. “This was my big show,” said the former ballet dancer, now the Manhattan Beach recreation services manager. “One of the biggest performances of your life.” The exit strategy had been in the works for years. Three of his brothers had already left Iraq, soon after the Ba’ath Party took power. Al-Oboudi was reluctant to go – he was leaving behind his family, friends, his dance partner whom he was madly in love with, a country full of history and culture, and a scholarship to study music and ballet in the Soviet Union. On top of that, he had to keep his escape plans totally secret. It was a matter of life and death. But his father insisted it would be more dangerous to stay. The country’s economy was booming…
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