HW 27: About Riverbend

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq, 2005The Feminist Press at the City University of NY, NY

Baghdad Burning is a very powerful book written by a young woman who has seen the war live and goes by the name, Riverbend. The book, written through blog entries, explains what it’s like experiencing the war first hand, living life day to day not knowing what’s going to happen to her and/or her family. Riverbend explains that she originally was looking for some sort of online “rantlog” (Riverbend 5), but settled with a blogging account the Google provided her. The reason this book was written was to give people outside of Iraq, or any war field in general, what it’s like to live where this scary action is taking place. As I read through her entries, she really knew how to captivate her readers and really put us in her shoes. As point blank as that statement sounds, it really is true! In general I think Riverbend wants the reader to learn that it’s hard for her to understand those who make up their minds on the war, when they don’t have very much knowledge about it. Riverbend wants her readers to understand what is actually going on in the war, and what it’s like to live in the middle of it, and then people may form their opinions around the actual facts. Riverbend writing these blogs and turning it into Baghdad Burning has some very great benefits. She really gives people the opportunity to really see what’s going on in Iraq through a true story, as opposed to the media, because we all know that the media can change the information any way they want. Riverbend allows her readers to really sympathize and want to do something to help contribute to solving the war. Some challenges Riverbend may experience are harmful events to herself. I believe she may fear that she may get in trouble for leaking out information about the war, and she is safe not to use her own name. However, Riverbend may have the challenge of punishment if others who disagree with her opinion find what she is writing. This reading is a great book that is incorporated into our class because our class is about how blogging, specifically, empowers women. Riverbend does such a great job showing how it made her feel better to blog about her experience, giving a clear example about how blogging really does empower women.