A deep wound in Iraq’s memory

Jorge Luis Borges once said that heaven is a library. He wasn’t exaggerating-;- he was describing his own fate. For Borges, reading was not just a habit, but a destiny. The library was not just a place-;- it was an infinite cosmos where words became destinies and books became additional lives within life.
At my age, I consider myself fortunate to be able to read, and to continue doing so. Whenever I feel worn down by reading, I return to Quentin Bell’s biography of Virginia Woolf to experience again the thrill that language offers when it is honest with itself. Bell’s book about his aunt Virginia never grows old-;- each time I read it, it feels as if the language within were a living organism, constantly regenerating.
But what does it mean for writing to be honest? Bell does not answer with definitions, but through his text. A book, he writes, is part of oneself, and when one sends it out into the world, it feels like pushing one’s child into traffic. Here, writing is not defence´-or-justification — it is exposure. It is a confession that sheds more light than it provides answers. Elsewhere, he adds: The damned thing about bad art is that the insincerity at its root is invisible to the artist himself. This line could serve as a critical standard for any memoir´-or-autobiographical writing. Sincerity — to oneself and to language — is what gives a text its radiance. No matter how polished, fabrication always betrays itself.
When we turn to the memoirs and autobiographies published in Iraq over the past three decades, we find that few were written with this in mind. They are not testimonies, but trials. They are not language seeking its essence, but rather masks attempting to absolve their authors. The writer does not present themselves as a witness, but as a defendant, playing the victim´-or-the hero, while many of the people involved in the events described are still alive and know the truth.
Is this not the very definition of fabrication? What happens when memoirs become defensive pleadings and language loses its internal coherence because it stems not from the self, but from a manufactured image? The secret of writing s power lies not in artificial heroism, but in admitting weakness, shedding light on ambiguity and transforming personal experience into human testimony.
When used sincerely, language is like a light that flows through a text, revealing the universal by illuminating the personal. However, when it conspires with fabrication, its light dims, leaving the text cold and lifeless. This is why the art of memoir and autobiography in Iraq requires radical revision. It must free itself from its obsession with seeking absolution and perfection and return to its essence: a truthful testimony that preserves memory and opens new horizons for readers. This is not what we see today: the deliberate destruction of collective memory, which leaves a deep wound in Iraq s modern history. Even the so-called elite , both political and literary, is harming itself and the country s contemporary legacy.
When memoirs become defensive, they distort more than just an individual’s image-;- they contribute to the erosion of collective memory. Iraq has experienced monumental events in recent decades, and the wounds are still open and the witnesses are still alive. When writers´-or-politicians rewrite these events to justify them, they obscure the truth and implant a false image in the public memory. This is not merely a personal error, but a deliberate act that threatens contemporary history by blurring the line between truth and fiction, confession and denial. Thus, memoirs become tools of erasure rather than instruments of preservation.
When used sincerely, language is like a light that shines through a text, revealing the universal by illuminating the personal. However, when it conspires with fabrication, its light dims, leaving the text cold and lifeless. This is why the art of memoir and autobiography in Iraq needs to be completely overhauled. These genres must free themselves from their obsession with seeking absolution and perfection, and return to their essence: providing readers with a truthful testimony that preserves memory and opens up new horizons. What we see today is the deliberate destruction of collective memory, leaving a deep wound in Iraq s modern history. Even the so-called elite , both political and literary, are harming themselves and the country s contemporary legacy.
When memoirs become defensive, they distort more than just an individual’s image-;- they contribute to the erosion of collective memory. Iraq has experienced monumental events in recent decades, and the wounds are still open-;- the witnesses are still alive. When writers´-or-politicians rewrite these events to justify them, they obscure the truth and implant a false image in the public memory. This is not merely a personal mistake, but a deliberate act that endangers contemporary history by blurring the line between truth and fiction, confession and denial. Thus, memoirs become tools of erasure rather than instruments of preservation.

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