Jill Carroll is a journalist who has been kidnapped and held hostage by Iraqi insurgents. The Al-Jazeera network said her captors threatened to kill her if the United States did not release all women held prisoner in 72 hours. But the threat to her life has been made clear via videotape from an Iraqi group called the “Brigades of Vengeance.”
According to http://www.cnn.com, Carroll has been reporting from the Middle East for the past three years. The problem I see is why she was there.
It is reported that she was on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor. For an American woman to be in Iraq, a country that despises women with careers and education, was a mistake.
Another double whammy to her situation is she, as a journalist, is not afraid to speak her mind and express her thoughts. I am not condoning the actions of her captors, but I just find it odd for Carroll to be in that country. It is so unfortunate that the country looks down on women for being the loud-mouthed and independent women like they are in America.
The finger needs to be pointed at the Christian Science Monitor for assigning her the story.
What possesses a newspaper to send a woman on an assignment into a country that is definitely not in her favor? I am sure that she is perfectly able to do the job journalistically, but the conditions go far beyond her experience.
It is very unfortunate that she has been kidnapped and my heart goes out to her and her family in this time of worry and scare. When will peace ever become global? Soon? This question may never be answered.
-Nyerere Davidson for the editorial board.