Saddam Hussein Liked Writing Steamy Romances
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (1937 – 2006), also known as “The Butcher of Baghdad”, ruled from 1979 until his ouster in the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. His years in power were marked by extreme brutality, repression, and corruption at home, plus costly and failed wars against his neighbors. In a variety of purges and genocides against domestic opponents, real or suspected, at least a quarter of a million Iraqis were killed by Saddam’s security services. Hundreds of thousands more Iraqis were killed in Saddam’s invasions of Iran and Kuwait.
However, the Iraqi tyrant seems to have had a maudlin streak. When not engaged in the wholesale murder of his people or getting them killed in failed foreign invasions, Saddam liked to indulge in his hobby of writing steamy romance novels. During his years in power, Saddam wrote at least four novels, and a number of poems and poetry collections.
Zabibah and the King is the best known of his novels, and the most widely lampooned – it was adapted by Sacha Baron Cohen’s in his 2012 comedy, The Dictator. Written in 2000 and set in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, in the 7th or 8th century, the novel is a convoluted love story. The main characters are Zabibah, a beautiful commoner; her perverted and cruel husband; and a powerful and handsome ruler named Hussein. Each night, the stunningly beautiful and brilliant Zabibah is summoned to Hussein’s palace, but borrowing from Arabian Nights, she fobs him off of feasting on her succulent body by giving long political speeches.
Eventually, Hussein’s attentions wander from Zabibah’s mind to her hot body, and he develops an unquenchable lust for her. Her perverted husband, fond of orgies and money and deviant sexual practices, is unhappy with the developing relationship between his wife and handsome king Hussein. So hubby disguises himself and rapes Zabibah as she walks home from the palace one night – a means of shaming her that makes sense within the cultural context of Iraqi tribal society and honor code. Handsome Hussein however loves Zabibah too much to let the rape-shame destroy the romance, so he goes after the perpetrator. After a series of adventures, Zabibah leads an army and is mortally wounded in battle, dying while proclaiming Arab nationalism with her last breath. Hussein goes on to capture and kill the rapist, avenging Zabibah’s honor.
Saddam was not a subtle writer, and the novel was intended as a ham fisted allegory, with the hints driven home as if by a sledgehammer. Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The rapist husband represents the US. The rape represents America’s ousting of Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, and is dated January 17th – the same date as the commencement of Operation Desert Storm. The powerful and heroic king Hussein represents Saddam Hussein.
Naturally, Iraqi critics lauded Zabibah to the skies, as a world class literary breakthrough. The novel became a domestic best seller, with over a million copies flying off the shelves. Saddam’s sycophants in the Iraqi Ministry of Information also saw to it that the novel was turned into a twenty part television series, which aired on and was frequently rerun on Iraqi TV. A musical was produced as well.