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This great post on Healing Iraq describes what the author, Zeyad, had to go through to get Internet access in 2000.
The first Internet center was opened to the public in early 2000 at Alawi Al-Hilla near the central Baghdad train station. I vividly recall visiting it a few days after it had opened. I had no background information on the Internet or how it was supposed to be used back then, I had intended to find some resources for a college report and I remember myself roaring at the polite employees in rage because nothing had appeared in the web browser when I typed ‘prosthetic dentistry’ in the address bar. When word had spread, Baghdadis started to wait in long lines for a vacant computer in order to browse at that center. People were thirsty for any link to the outside world. More Internet centers were opened in Baghdad, and later in governorate centers. By 2003 we had 42 centers all over the country with a total of 546 computers (still not enough). It was illegal to own a modem back then unless you had special authorization from the government, the ban was suddenly lifted and SCIS _[State company for Internet Services – ed.]_ announced that email (only) account subscriptions were now available for home users. Of course it was still expensive for the majority of Iraqis, and you had to sign under a long list of conditions and commitments which included brief passages from the Iraqi criminal law and warnings of up to 20 years imprisonment if they were breached, something like that. I admit the list was scary but the temptation was overwhelming.
I signed up. After a few days I had figured out how to access Usenet, Yahoo Groups, and the Internet Movie Database by email. A couple of months more and I discovered a fascinating method to access the web by email!! There were a few archaic services, one called www4mail (I think), and another by the University of Vancouver. A few days more and I had my hands on tons of similar ‘useful’ services. You can imagine the excitement of a deprived soul over that discovery, and what was even better is that it was (we thought it was) uncensored. And like the generous young chap that I am, I started to pass out these services to friends and family. In less than a week the whole country had mastered the trick! Of course when I look back at the situation now I think that I was most probably insane to spread that kind of information. After a few days my email account (along with thousands others) were discontinued. I remember waiting in panic for some time for the dreaded knock on the door, but much to my relief it didn’t come. We were lucky, but also foolish enough to actually visit the Ministry of Information later to ask what had happened to our accounts. We were presented with a roll of paper with hundreds of names on it and told that if our names were on the list then our accounts were cancelled because of ‘misuse’. Our names were there all right, so we resigned and went back home. The next day I opened another account in my mother’s name. I acted like a good boy after that, and the aforementioned services got blocked anyway.
It helps us appreciate the freedom we have, to see what others will do to seek the same freedoms for themselves. Zeyad literally lived in fear in order just to access the net. He helped Iraqis express their yearning for freedom, and via his blog continues to help with the evolution of a free Iraq.
