Al Quds Militiawoman
An Al-Quds militiawoman pauses during an anti-American demonstration Feb. 8, 2003 in Tikrit, Iraq. The military parade featured roughly 45,000 civilians in an exhibition of Iraqi resistance to U.S. forces. The annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) parade honored the Feb. 8 birthday of Sadaam Hussein, who was born in a village just outside Tikrit.
Hussein frequently claimed that the Al-Quds Militia would be used to drive Israelis from Palestine. The militia, under the U.S. occupation, of course, is defunct. (See the essay Sura, from the book Night of a Thousand Stars and Other Portraits of Iraq, associated with this image.)