BAGHDAD: Zeyad is a 27-year-old dentist. He works for a government clinic with broken dental chairs and no anaesthetics. At home, when gunfire rattles his neighbourhood, Zeyad’s family cowers in one room while he types away on his computer.

Zeyad is a blogger.

Unheard of in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, blogging is providing ordinary Iraqis with a voice — a chance to vent and reflect on the changes reshaping their country.

For the outside world, the generally anonymous internet postings offer raw insider views and insights in which sorrow and joy, hope and despair, fear and defiance coexist as the violence of the resistance and now sectarian divisions swirl around Iraqis.

“The West should listen to the opinions of the simple Iraqi people. They only hear from analysts and politicians,” said Zeyad, who agreed to discuss his blogging only if his family name wasn’t revealed for security reasons. “This is a good window into the world.”

Zeyad penned his first entry in his Healing Iraq blog in October 2003 about Iraq’s new currency, calling it ‘wonderful and so symbolic’ that the distribution of the new dinar coincided with the anniversary of a referendum that re-elected Saddam. He has gone on to chronicle his thoughts on all aspects of life in the new Iraq.

There were moments of pride and exhilaration, too.

One came when Iraqis voted for an interim legislature in January 2005, their first democratic election in decades.

“Hold your head up high. Remember that you are Iraqi,” Zeyad wrote that day.

“My mother was in tears watching the scenes from all over the country,” he added. “Iraqis had voted for peace and for a better future, despite the surrounding madness. I sincerely hope this small step would be the start of much bolder ones.”

More recently, his blog has tackled grimmer subjects: explosions, assassinations, street fighting — common themes in many Iraqi blogs.

“Please don’t ask me whether I believe Iraq is on the verge of civil war yet or not,” Zeyad wrote. “All I see is that both sides are engaged in tit-for-tat lynchings and summary executions.”

Zeyad said health ministry officials deem the trip to his clinic on the outskirts of Baghdad too risky. That is why the chairs have not been fixed and the anaesthetics were not provided. “We don’t work,” he said.—AP