Brave Heart

a happy ending

when florence aubenas went to baghdad to cover the iraqi elections, she had no idea that she would become the story

Florence Aubenas is accustomed to life in danger zones. As a foreign correspondent for the French daily Libération, she has covered wars in Afghanistan, Algeria and Kosovo, and genocide in Rwanda. But she’d never become the story—until Aubenas, 44, was taken hostage along with her Iraqi translator, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, by Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Sent to Baghdad last December to cover the Iraqi elections, she was captured in January while reporting near Baghdad University in the al-Jadriya district of the city. Blindfolded and chained by her wrists and ankles in a 2 m by 4 m pitch-black room, Aubenas was held for over five months. She endured sporadic beatings, little food and water and temperatures of up to 50°C. “At times, I thought I was going to die,” she says of her 157 days in captivity. “But just as a fireman knows that he can get burned, I knew that being in Baghdad was always going to be a professional risk.”

While Aubenas wondered if she would survive, the French mobilized to publicize her cause and secure her release. Posters of Aubenas hung from town halls all over the country; newspapers carried front-page messages of support every day she and al-Saadi were held. “I knew nothing,” Aubenas says of the huge public effort. “I wasn’t aware of the enormous media interest and I didn’t expect the attention upon my return.” Aubenas was suddenly released in June; she says she has no idea why she was freed, and the French government denies rumors that a ransom was paid. Aubenas’ mother and her colleagues from Libération, as well as President Jacques Chirac, turned out to welcome her home when she touched down at Villacoublay military air base. The French, still bickering over the rejected European constitution and fretting over the stalled economy, needed the boost. “My story was a positive one in a barren landscape,” Aubenas acknowledges.

Aubenas downplays her ordeal. She declines to discuss her relationships with other hostages held at the same time, apart from al-Saadi, citing ongoing security concerns. And she insists she shouldn’t be regarded as a role model: “When you live through something so publicly, it becomes a communal story. People who recognize me, congratulate me, it’s a little funny. Was I really a hero? For me, a hero is someone who leads a fight, gloriously, with a firm stand. I didn’t fight for anything. I was captured, held and delivered. I was an object.” Still, her courage under fire brought the French together, however briefly. After a little rest and relaxation over the summer, Aubenas is now back at work. “I might savor my coffee more in the morning,” she says, “but when it comes to the big issues, I don’t see life any differently.” One day, she even hopes to return to Iraq: “To me it remains a country like any other, a part of the world I love.” —By Jonathan Shenfield

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