Secular vision of a prominent Iraqi family

The Chadirji family – several of whose members helped shape modern Iraq – renew an uphill bid to promote their ideals.

By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the March 24, 2008 edition

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BAGHDAD - Kamil Chadirji's home in Baghdad is one of the last vestiges of a bygone world.

It was here that Mr. Chadirji's grandfather, also named Kamil, a prominent lawyer, journalist, and founder of Iraq's National Democratic Party (NDP), would gather artists, writers, and intellectuals to talk about their visions for an independent and modern Iraq.

But in the new democratic Iraq, these secular visionaries have been pushed to the edges, sidelined by a society that is swayed more by religious clerics than by academics and people like Kamil or his father's contemporaries. Five years into the war, most of these people live outside Iraq. Some who left before the war have chosen not to come back.

Now, some of the Chadirjis are making modest attempts to reassert these ideals through political work, writing, and contributions to design and architecture in a atmosphere they say is dominated by hard-line Islamist parties.

"There is more to Iraq than turbans and clerics. We represent an educated middle class that led the country during its birth and made some impact," says Kamil, who is a deputy minister of municipalities and public works.

"Things will not get better by escaping. I will not leave Iraq so that a cleric can take over my place," he adds, though Kamil's wife and two sons live in Jordan. One way he remains engaged is through his direction of the Alwiyah Club in Baghdad, a social and recreational club dating to 1924, which continues to host occasional political gatherings and conferences.

He is also working on turning his grandfather's house – which has one of the largest private libraries and art collections in Baghdad – into a museum.

The Chadirji family has had ministers and governors among their ranks in pre-Baath Iraq. And family members have taken various routes to communicate their vision of Iraq. They do not like to be labeled as privileged Sunnis and speak first of being Iraqis.

In perhaps his boldest step, Kamil's father Naseer is trying ­ against great odds – to rally the country's splintered secular forces, gathering the signatures of nearly 800 prominent Iraqis from all sects and ethnicities on a petition calling for the separation of state and religion. Although he was a member of the first governing council created by the Americans following the 2003 invasion, his NDP, like many other secular parties, failed to win seats in parliament in the December 2005 elections. Others, like the party of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, have seen their alliance of communists, liberals, and secularists unravel.

"This appeal is the first spark," says Naseer. He, his wife, Amira, and Kamil are the only Chadirjis living in Iraq. The family's homes on Taha Street are protected by armed guards; nearby is a combat outpost established by the US and Iraqi military.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of parliament and a family friend, says the Chadirjis' efforts are important. "If secular parties work together, they can make headway. People are fed up with religious parties," says Mr. Othman

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