Iraqi expatriates from region give up pay to vote

QUINCY -- For Radhi Aljanabi, one calculation of the price of freedom is $600 in expenses and the body-stiffening inconvenience of a long drive to suburban Washington this weekend to vote in Iraq's elections.

But Aljanabi, a Quincy cab driver, will gladly pay those costs to participate in the first open polling for an Iraqi government in a half-century.

"It's the future for me, for my kids, and for another generation," he said. "It's like a new day for the Iraqi people."

Aljanabi, 35, will leave Quincy tomorrow in a rented van carrying 15 expatriate Iraqis to a polling station in New Carrollton, Md. The trek will be the second to the Washington area for Aljanabi, who traveled there two weeks ago to register for the election. The New Carrollton location is the closest to Boston and one of only five places nationwide where an estimated 240,000 expatriate Iraqis were given the chance to enroll.

Only 25,946, or 11 percent, of eligible Iraqi-Americans registered at the polling stations. The scarcity of US polling places and a conflict with an Islamic holiday, are believed to have hampered the registration turnout.

Aljanabi said he does not mind the long ride to Maryland, not after a tumultuous life during which Saddam Hussein confiscated his family's farm. In addition, Aljanabi fought in the bloody uprising against the Hussein regime in 1991, and his parents and brother struggle to live in Iraq amid violent instability.

"If there's no election," Aljanabi said, "there's no guarantee that the violence will stop."

Aljanabi plans to take his wife, Ghfran, and 19-month-old son, Mohemmed, on the trip, for which he will forgo two 12-hour days of work for Yellow Cab. That translates into two days of lost income, plus $200 in leasing costs that Aljanabi has to pay Yellow Cab for his taxi.

It's a sacrifice he is eager to make, said Aljanabi, a US citizen who has lived in this country since he left a Saudi Arabia refugee camp in 1992. With complicated election logistics and fears of violence in Iraq, where the names of candidates and polling places are not expected to be known until Sunday, the difficulties of the US process pale in comparison for Aljanabi.

Mohammed Kahim, another Iraqi who lives in Quincy, said the seven-hour trip will not be a burden. "It's OK. I don't care if it takes a long time," said Kahim, a carpenter. "This is very important for the Iraqi people. It's been such a long time since the last vote."

For Aljanabi and his friends, a collection of construction workers, travel agents, and mechanics, the budget-busting and logistical hurdles that would daunt most Americans are easily accepted as part of the bargain for democracy.

"If there were no cars and no buses, I would walk there," Aljanabi said. "This is for the future of Iraq. A lot of people say, 'Even if I have to be fired from my work, I have to go.' "

Although the US vote will be insignificant in an election in which millions of ballots might be cast, each vote is personally important, Aljanabi said. His fellow Shi'ites are a majority in Iraq, but were oppressed for decades by the Sunni Muslims under Hussein.

With family still in Iraq, Aljanabi retains strong ties to his homeland, and he hopes to one day to be able to split his time between his old country and his adopted one. He will not abandon the United States, though. "I can't leave this country. It's my home, too."

The Quincy group will travel in two vans -- one carrying 15 people, and one ferrying seven -- to join about 2,000 other expatriates from the Northeast who will cast their votes in New Carrollton. Similar small groups will leave from Rhode Island and Lynn, Aljanabi said.

After finishing school in Diwaniyah in southern Iraq, Aljanabi bounced around the country, spending a few months with a relative and moving on to another's home to avoid conscription in the Iraqi army. At times, he said, the cat-and-mouse game involved hiding in bushes while soldiers shot at him.

After the Gulf War in 1991, at the urging of President George H.W. Bush, Aljanabi and thousands of other Shi'ites from southern Iraq rebelled against Hussein. Aljanabi, who drove an ambulance, said he lost many friends in the fighting. His zeal to vote comes from that bitter experience, Aljanabi said, because he never wants the Iraqi people to suffer such violence again.

After crossing into Saudi Arabia following the uprising, Aljanabi and his brother lived in a tent in the harsh Saudi desert and tried to avoid being sent back in the bloody crackdown that marked the aftermath of the rebellion. Aljanabi had been there six months when his brother woke him with the news that they had been accepted for relocation in the United States.

Upon his arrival in the United States, Aljanabi said, he found a different country than the one that he had envisioned from Iraq, where he had been raised with the image of a cold place filled with dangerous drug addicts and people who hate immigrants.

Like thousands of other Iraqi expatriates, Aljanabi's family had felt the brutality of Hussein's regime firsthand. His wife, who was a teacher, and her entire school were summoned to witness the execution of a school employee who had disobeyed official orders in order to visit his dying father. Aljanabi's brother was detained for a prolonged time at great psychological cost to his mother. And Aljanabi's family suffered the humiliation of being charged for the bullets that killed three cousins who were executed for disloyalty during the 1980s.

"We don't want to end up with the wrong government again," Aljanabi said. "We've had it. We should be living like normal people."

This week, as he prepared for his trip, Aljanabi reflected on the trouble faced by friends and family in Iraq, including his mother, father, and brother, who plan to vote Sunday despite the threat of violence.

"Many people right now are trying to fight the Iraqi people by killing innocent people. Killing women and children, bombing the election office, threatening everyone," Aljanabi said. "But they are not going to stop us. If we don't go, they are going to win."

Aljanabi said he will vote for a slate that includes candidates from various ethnic and religious factions: Shi'ites, Sunnis, Kurds, Muslims, and Christians.

After the vote, Aljanabi said, the family will do some sightseeing, including a trip to the White House to take photographs. That's a priority for his wife, Aljanabi said, who has "seen it on TV and wants to take pictures to send to her friends in Iraq."

Aljanabi said he hopes that someday the family can linger over such pictures, telling tales of the United States, in a safe and democratic Iraq.