Biography
Muntadhar al-Zaidi was raised in Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. He began working as a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia TV in 2005. He first became known as a victim of a kidnapping by unknown assailants in November 2007. Al-Zaidi has also been arrested twice by United States armed forces. He lives in a two room apartment within central Baghdad. He is of the Shi'a-Muslim faith, and unmarried.
"One of his best reports was on Zahra, a young Iraqi school girl killed by the occupation forces while en route to school," said Ahmed Alaa, a close friend and colleague of al-Zaidi at al-Baghdadia television who talked to Islam Online. Alaa said al-Zaidi documented the tragedy in his reportage, complete with interviews with her family, neighbors and friends. "This report earned him the respect of many Iraqis and won him many hearts in Iraq," he said. Al-Zaidi once also turned down an offer to work for what he termed "a pro-occupation channel". Friends said al-Zaidi had been "emotionally influenced" by the destruction he'd seen in his coverage of the US bombing of Sadr City. Muzhir al-Khafaji, al-Zaidi's boss at the TV station, describes al-Zaidi as a "proud Arab and an open-minded man." He added, "He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam's regime." On politics, al-Zaidi said "I’m Iraqi and I’m proud of my country." Friends of al-Zaidi said he utterly rejected the occupation and the civil clashes. They said he believed the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was a "legalization of the occupation."
Sami Ramadani, a political exile from Saddam's regime and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University, wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian that al-Zaidi "reported for al-Baghdadia on the poor and downtrodden victims of the US war. He was first on the scene in Sadr City and wherever people suffered violence or severe deprivation. He not only followed US Apache helicopters' trails of death and destruction, but he was also among the first to report every 'sectarian' atrocity and the bombing of popular market places. He let the victims talk first".
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