Posted on 02/21/2026 4:23:34 AM PST by MtnClimber
“Iran has a better chance of being liberated than Iraq, because I see that most Iranians are fighting.”
Human rights activist and founder of the NGO Humanity Forward Sarah Idan was the first Iraqi woman to participate in the Miss Universe pageant in 45 years. However, a photo with the Israeli contestant forced her and her family to leave Iraq permanently. Idan has been an ambassador for UN Watch and is a staunch advocate for peace with Israel. In this interview, we discuss the situation in Iraq and the possibility of political change in Iran.
You left Iraq for the first time during the civil war and returned two years later. What did you find when you returned? Were there expectations for a better future? Yes, I had to flee Iraq with my family to Syria when I was 15 because we were threatened by Shiite militias for being Sunnis. I returned at the end of 2007, but the situation was not good. The truth is that hope only existed in 2003, because when the Americans arrived, we were all hopeful. We believed that everything was going to be better and we had no issue with the Americans; those who attacked them were militants, Baathists, and people with political ambitions, but then the killings, kidnappings, and car bombs began on a daily basis.
When I returned, it was a little safer, but even so, my family, especially the men, could not return to our home in Baghdad and we had to go to Babylon. The militias were still on the streets, demanding money in exchange for protection. I saw that things weren’t going to get better and that there was no future. So, in 2009, I started working with the U.S. military and got my green card, which allowed me to go to the United States.
But then you returned to Iraq again. I went back in 2012 to see my family and, honestly, even though everything was supposed to have improved, the situation was still bad: there were streets you couldn’t walk down, areas under sniper fire, etc. In 2015, with the retreat of ISIS, things improved a little, but by 2017, Iraq was under Iranian control. Unfortunately, I have never seen Iraq get better.
In 2017, you participated in and won the Miss Iraq pageant, the first in 45 years. That led you to Miss Universe in the United States, where you took a photo with Miss Israel. What happened then? It is important to note that, although it was a Miss Iraq pageant, the organization was Kurdish. In fact, my country’s government’s response when I took that picture was proof that Iraq had not evolved and that we had gotten worse. When I took that picture, I didn’t think it would cause an issue. Saddam fueled hatred against Israel, but I believed that, at least, that was part of the past. A government minister called the organization to threaten them and accused me of treason, and in the end, it made sense, because it was Iran that was in charge and had the same goal in a much more radical way.
My phone didn’t stop ringing and my Instagram was full of messages, so I was shocked. Basically, they forced me, under threat of stripping me of my title and expelling me from the contest, to make a statement on my social media accounts saying that I supported Palestine and was against Israeli policies in the region. One minute after the pageant ended, I deleted it. At the same time, a huge smear campaign was launched on social media, showing photos I had posted when I was in the U.S. Army as proof of my betrayal. They made photo and video montages, accused me of not being Iraqi and of being born in Tel Aviv, of belonging to the Mossad, the CIA … They accused me of being Jewish, and I couldn’t believe the amount of hate I received for that reason. My family also had to flee Iraq because of death threats. It was insane, and I became an activist when I decided not to remain silent and to respond to their messages.
In that activism, you have been an ambassador for UN Watch. What do you think of the UN’s action, or rather passivity, regarding repression in Iran? The UN has always been corrupt, so I’m not surprised at all. I was at an event at UN headquarters in 2018 or 2019, and in one hallway there were large portraits of the various presidents of the United Nations, and under each portrait it said, “gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran.” So who really runs the UN?
In 2019, you spoke at the United Nations in favor of peace with Israel. I believe this cost you your Iraqi citizenship. Because of me, they created a law that criminalizes anyone who has a relationship with Israelis, whether online or offline, with prison sentences; the law was created after my speech at the United Nations. And then they decided to revoke my citizenship, which is illegal under the Iraqi Constitution. Even the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died with his Iraqi citizenship intact. They never thought of taking it away from him.
What is the situation like in Iraq now? It has always been bad, and now it has gotten worse. Last year, they passed a law allowing marriages with nine-year-old girls, something we have never had in our history. Now they want to bring back Nuri al-Maliki, one of the worst prime ministers we have had since Saddam Hussein. During the twelve-day war between Iran and Israel, al-Maliki made a video in which he said he was willing to sacrifice our children and our women to protect Khamenei. His words, which offended many Iraqis, are a sign of Iran’s control over Iraq.
Honestly, I think Iran has a better chance of being liberated than Iraq, because I see that most Iranians are fighting. In Iraq, we have the wrong people in the right place, the most corrupt people where they can steal the most. They have reached an agreement with the Kurds to basically leave them alone, and although they fear the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, they have the country under their control.
Just a few days ago, the United States transferred 5,700 ISIS prisoners from Syria to Iraq. How do you view this decision? I cannot understand it, especially when al-Maliki allowed ISIS to run rampant in Iraq. He ordered the army to withdraw and let ISIS take Mosul and other cities and capture Yazidi women. Furthermore, whenever there has been an uprising by the Iraqi people against the government, such as the ‘October Revolution,’ they have given ISIS free rein to present themselves as the only source of stability and used Shiite militias to quell the protests. I fear that if there is a revolution, they will do this again. And I am also afraid that if Iraq is liberated from the Mullahs’ regime, Ahmed al-Sharaa and Erdoğan will invade Iraq side by side. That would mean we would be under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood and become Syria.
I also have no confidence in the role of the United States, because the Trump administration has reached agreements with Ahmed al-Sharaa and Erdoğan, and has abandoned its Kurdish allies and the Syrian democratic forces. For all these reasons, I believe there is more hope for the Iranian people than for the Iraqi people.
However, on social media, you are quite critical of the Iranian opposition. There is a lot of arrogance on the part of Iranian activists in the United States, and most of them are people who have lived their entire lives in exile, meaning they have never lived in Iran or even been there. And I see that every time they speak in the media, they keep saying that Iran is not going to be like Iraq, that they are very different and that they do not want islam. Don’t they realize that 90% of their people are Shiite Muslims? They are out of touch with reality. Furthermore, politically, there are also divisions over the monarchy, whether it should only be part of a transition period or whether it should return to its pre-revolution role. They need a plan, and it is not enough to believe that Iranians are more educated than Iraqis or that they are more democratic. I have seen what the Mullahs’ regime has exported to Iraq, and that has made my country what it is today.
I believe that the king is the best option to lead a transition because he is an ally of the United States and the West, and would prevent a radical communist or Islamist hardliner from coming to power. But they need a plan and to reach agreements in order to achieve a stable government. However, to be honest, when it comes to the Middle East, democracy does not work well for us. If we look at countries like Jordan, which is a kingdom, we see stability, but when democracy is attempted, as in Iraq, things go wrong because of the enormous presence of Islamists. I think Iran needs to learn this lesson and not allow any Islamist political forces, as has been done in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Bkmk
Indeed. Low IQ inbred tribal Muslims need a strong man to keep them in check. If it wasn’t for oil they would still be harvesting sand.
Iraq had a monarchy until 1958 when it was overthrown. I haven’t heard of any movement in Iraq to restore the monarchy. It was foreign anyway.
The root of the problem is Islam. Iran is run as an Islamic theocracy based on 6th century tribalism. The repression, denigration of women, the dictatorship are all part of Islam. Look at Afghanistan where slavery has been legalized by its Islamic theocracy. Sooner or later the west must that Islam is not a religion but a repressive ideology incompatible with western values and civilization. If we fail western nations will be much like Iran.
Democracy doesn’t work in the ME because the average IQ is below 100.
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