Saddam Hussein Can be Found in Egypt

An Egyptian village located 100 kilometers to the west of Cairo was called Saddam Hussein. At that, over half of the village population are named after the ex-dictator of Iraq and his children, Udei, Qusay, Raghad, Rana and Hala and also after some of former Ba'ath leaders.

Over 3,000 people in the village used to work in Iraq and earned enough money which is quite a wealth for their native place; some of the villagers married Iraqi girls and brought their wives to the native village.

It began in 1978 that first men from the village Al-Azba left for Iraq in search of a job. Soon their relatives started receiving regular dollar transfers, and the whole of the village learnt of this method of money earning. By the year of 1983, hundreds of local men and boys worked as constructors, drivers, waiters, served in the army and the police in Iraq.

When one of the men got back home in 1981 he built a big stone house following a Baghdad model and called the street where it stood the Baghdad Street.

Local authorities did not object when villagers living in newly built houses wanted to name the new village after Saddam Hussein. Several streets of the village bear Iraqi names.

During the Iraqi campaign, villagers from Saddam Hussein kept up with the events and watched TV reports. When it was reported sons of the ex-president of Iraq were killed, some of the houses hung out crape bands.

Delfi