Jehan Rajab dies

KUWAIT CITY, April 5: Jehan Rajab, author of “Invasion Kuwait: an English Woman’s Tale”, died Sunday.

Condolence days will be on Monday and Tuesday in House Number 22, Street 5, Block 12, Jabriya for men; while for women it will be in Dar El Cid, Building number 24, Street 1, Block 12, Jabriya.

She was married to Tareq Rajab - a Kuwaiti artist and art collector. She was part of the management of Tareq Rajab Museum and served as Deputy Chairperson of New English School in Kuwait.

Jehan, who was born in Brazil, studied in Gibraltar and Britain. She resided in Kuwait for more than 30 years prior to the publication of her book.

In her book, Jehan presented the human voice of the Kuwaiti perspective on the Gulf War - a different approach from others who wrote about the war as they focused on the political, economic and military aspects.

Since she lived in Kuwait for a long time and throughout the Iraqi invasion, Jehan narrated incidents during the occupation from the so-called insider’s point of view. She fully understood the cultural impact of the occupation.

She portrayed the Iraqis as occupiers and the Allied Forces as liberators who helped the oppressed Kuwaitis. She also tackled the damage caused by the invasion to local hospitals and its negative impact on the medical services. She said that when she got sick and her son was injured, they opted to stay at home rather than seek treatment at the hospital knowing they cannot get much help there.

She clearly expressed how Kuwaitis felt towards the idea of using force to expel the invading forces: “While killing and war were the last things anyone in Kuwait wanted, we wondered if words of peace were much use to the Iraqis, who had such different intentions. We also wondered of how these activists might have felt had they been in our position, expecting every day to die from possible starvation, torture or plan murder ...We did not particularly want to be a sacrifice to the idea of peace.”