Wallach on the British woman who shaped Iraq
Respected author and journalist to speak on Gertrude Bell, 'the uncrowned queen of Iraq'
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
Janet Wallach is what Yassar Arafat and Coco Chanel have in common - a blonde-haired, blueeyed woman who has traveled through the Middle East to source hardnosed militants for years in her career as an author and journalist. She's written eight books, and, as a contributor to The Washington Post Magazine and Smithsonian Magazine, Wallach has written cover story profiles of Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon; Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; Reza Pahlavi, heir to the throne of Iran; PLO envoy Hassan Abdul Rahman; Saudi entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi and the First Lady of Egypt, Jihan Sadat.

]anet Wallach

She will speak this week at the Atheneum on her most recent biographical work, "Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia."

The chief intelligence agent in Baghdad during World War I, Bell was the British official most responsible for the creation of modern Iraq, according to Wallach: "She is the official who drew the map of what the new state would look like. She literally drew the lines in the sand, creating new borders, and worked with Churchill to decide what people would live there - the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, at her behest - and then who would become the king."

Bell subsequently became the closest advisor to Iraq's first king, Faisal I, and after World War I was considered "the most powerful woman in the British empire," Wallach said. "As I was doing research, newspaper after newspaper called her the uncrowned queen of Iraq."

Wallach said the situation in which Bell found herself after dividing up the Middle East is akin to the United State's current predicament.

"They faced everything we've gone through," Wallach said. "When the British soldiers arrived in Baghdad, they had to make their way from Basra, freeing the Arabs from the Turks as they went along, and it took them months to get there. Initially, they were greeted by smiles and flowers and cheers; the Arab people were so happy to be rid of the Turks. But within weeks, the Arabs were saying, 'How long are these people here for? … They haven't just liberated us, they're occupying us.' And they got angrier and angrier. There were riots and, after a while, a real insurgency that spread from town to town, city to city, just like we're seeing now."

The British Empire looked to the Middle East as we do now, according to Wallach, as a strategic necessity because of its location and resources. And though Wallach concedes that Bell can be held responsible for strengthening a Middle Eastern tradition of foment against the West, she also draws a crucial distinction between Bell and today's Western leaders with their fingers in the Middle Eastern pie.

"She lived there for years and is buried in Baghdad. She really had the interest of the Arabs at heart," Wallach said. "And although she was a prominent British citizen through and through, she understood the Arabs, sympathized with them and spoke their language fluently. She had the confidence of the Iraqi leaders, because they knew she could understand how they felt. They knew she was not out to control the Arabs; she was trying to understand them, to build a system for them." camp (www.seedsofpeace.org), which her husband, the late journalist John Wallach, established in 1993. The camp invites teens from warring Middle Eastern and Asian countries to Maine for a summer of stereotype destruction and conflict resolution strategies. The camp also provides money for its alumni to attend college in the United States.

As a woman and a foreigner, Bell embodied one of the fundamental tenets of Seeds of Peace - that knowledge, acclimation and care can win you friends in the Middle East.

"She was a woman who carried herself with great authority and knowledge, and it was because of that she was respected so much by the Arab men," Wallach said. "She had an understanding of the people and knowledge that was highly respected and necessary. She knew things that were important to the survival of the Arabs. For example, when she was in the desert and came upon a tribe, she could tell them where their enemies had camped, which oasis had water; she knew what was going on in Constantinople and could tell them how the British and French were thinking as well. She had their respect for that reason."

An archaeologist, she also discovered Mesopotamian ruins, insisted they remain within the country, despite European pressure to the contrary, and formed the Baghdad Archaeological Museum.

In addition to showing the diplomatic value of walking in the Arabs' sand-filled shoes, Bell's career in the Middle East also demonstrated that change there has to come from within. "Their king, Faisal, had the same problem the current government has with establishing their leader as the real leader. … If change comes from outside, it will be resented. No one is a hero when they're imposing a revolution

from the outside." I

When: Sat., June 23, 8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Where: Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India St. Cost: $15 ($10 for students and senior citizens).

Tickets available at the Atheneum. For more information, please call 228-1110.