International Education Week features Iraq photos
Published Nov. 16, 2004
A weeping mother is caught mid-tear mourning over her cancer-stricken child. The child is expected to die, and her family cannot afford to treat the disease.
Smiling faces, grieving mothers, working men wiping sweat from their brow ' this is just a sampling of the photographs that can be seen at the Faces of Iraq exhibit at Ellis Library.
The exhibit is a collection of photographs from a group of eight international photojournalists who visited the country from 1998 to 2003.
The photographs are being exhibited as part of MU's International Education Week. The exhibit will be featured at MU until Friday.
The groups putting on the exhibit hope to bring the conditions of the Iraqi people to the forefront.
"We hope that people will know the situation in Iraq and have a chance to see the situation through pictures," International Education Week Chairwoman Christine Chan said. "I think that the most beneficial thing is that we are offering a point of view that will help people express their feelings and engage in dialogue."
The exhibit, sponsored by the Education for Peace in Iraq Center in Washington, D.C., is making a cross-country tour of college campuses.
"The exhibit lets me look at the people of Iraq as people who are afflicted with the same problems that we have, yet they have a lot more challenges than we have," Director of Libraries Jim Cogswell said. "We like to think that all of the exhibits that we put on here are a way for people to gain a larger view on ideas, people and issues of the day, and libraries are a perfect venue for this kind of thing."