Army. A year ago, when an
American soldier fell in love in Baghdad, his commander ordered him not to
marry. Well, Sgt Sean Blackwell
launched a secret mission to marry the Iraqi woman he loved. She's filled with hope
for a new future, even as she waves goodbye to everything she has ever known. Ehdaa is
making a run of 500 kilometres through the dangers of the Sunni Triangle,
trying to reach her new American husband, the one that the Army ordered out of
her life. 'Sometimes, you just fall in love and you don't know why. I think it's our fate,' says Ehdaa. 'I think we're
meant to be together. I just can't wait to see him.'After the fall of Baghdad,
Blackwell landed in one of those places
where the tension was greatest, Baghdad's biggest hospital. One day, amid the
chaos, in walked Ehdaa, a young Iraqi doctor. 'To be honest, when I first met
her, I was like, you know, she's very, very attractive, but you know, what's
the point of trying to start a relationship
over here?'
'I started thinking, what we are doing is impossible.
I'm Muslim and he's a Christian. I'm Iraqi and he's American. It just can't
happen,' says Ehdaa. 'It did. Love can produce miracles. I do believe this
now.'
Blackwell
asked Ehdaa's brother, who told him, 'I'd be honoured for you to marry my
sister.' But under local law, a Muslim woman can marry only a Muslim man.
'There's
only one God and that's God and Mohamed is the messenger of God.' Through those
words, Blackwell became a Muslim.
But six months after his wedding, Blackwell
said goodbye to his mother and headed back towards the war zone he had recently
left. 'She looks just
as beautiful as the first time I saw her. I feel so comfortable. It's like I
haven't been away from her for six months,' says Blackwell. In
a sense, the Blackwells are exactly what the Pentagon had dreamed of at the
start of the war - American soldiers embraced by Iraq. It seems ironic that
when the military got what it wanted, at least on a small scale, it manoeuvred
to divide, only to be outflanked by a soldier who would not disobey the orders
of his heart.