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Margaret Hassan
Margaret Hassan

Margaret Hassan (also Madam Margaret) (April 18,1945–November 14, 2004?) was an aid worker who worked in Iraq for many years and was kidnapped and killed there, apparently by members of the Iraqi insurgency, in late 2004.

She was born Margaret Fitzsimmons in Dublin, Ireland, to parents Peter and Mary Fitzsimmons. However, most of her early life was spent in London, England, where her family moved early on. At the age of seventeen, she married Tahseen Ali Hassan, a twenty-six-year-old Iraqi studying engineering in the United Kingdom. She moved to Iraq with him in 1972, when she began work with the British Council of Baghdad, teaching English. Eventually she learned Arabic and became an official Iraqi citizen. She remained a Catholic throughout her life and never converted to Islam as was widely reported after her death.
During the early 1980s Margaret became the assistant director of studies at the British Council; later in the decade she became director. Meanwhile, Tahseen worked as an economist. Margaret remained in Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War, although the British Council suspended operations in Iraq, and she was left jobless at the end of it.

Margaret joined humanitarian relief organisation CARE International in 1991, the aid group having established itself in Iraq during that year. Sanitation, health, and nutrition became major concerns in the sanctioned Iraq; she became a vocal critic of the United Nations restrictions. She was opposed to the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, arguing before it that the Iraqis were already "living through a terrible emergency. They do not have the resources to withstand an additional crisis brought about by military action".

Well known in many of Baghdad's slums and other cities, Margaret was especially interested in Iraq's young people, whom she called "the lost generation". Her presence could draw large crowds of locals. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3756552.stm

She was kidnapped in Baghdad on 19 October 2004, and apparently killed some four weeks later. At the time of her kidnapping she was head of Iraqi operations for CARE.

Her kidnappers did not issue any specific demands, but in a video released of her in captivity she pleaded for the withdrawal of British troops. She stated that "these might be her last hours", "Please help me. The British people, tell Mr Blair to take the troops out of Iraq and not bring them here to Baghdad" and that she did not "want to die like Bigley", a reference to Kenneth Bigley who was beheaded in Iraq only weeks earlier.

CARE International suspended operations in Iraq because of Hassan's kidnapping. The last CARE project Hassan completed was one for children with spinal injuries.

Patients of an Iraqi hospital (where her work had some effect) have taken to the streets in protest against the hostage takers' actions. On 25 October, between 100 and 200 Iraqis protested outside CARE's offices in Baghdad, demanding her release. Prominent elements of the Iraqi resistance, such as the Shura Council of Fallujah Mujahedeen, condemned the kidnapping and called for her release.

Margaret Hassan in a video released by her captors
Margaret Hassan in a video released by her captors

On 2 November, Al Jazeera reported that the kidnappers threatened to hand her over to the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who were responsible for the murder of Kenneth Bigley. However, on 6 November, a statement purportedly from al-Zarqawi appeared on an Islamist website calling for the release of Ms. Hassan unless the kidnappers had information she was aligned with the invading coalition. However, the statement could not immediately be authenticated. Ms. Hassan's whereabouts were unknown in the video.

On 15 November, U.S. Marines in Fallujah uncovered the body of an unidentified blonde- or grey-haired woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit. The body could not be immediately identified, but was thought unlikely to be Hassan, who had brown hair. There was one other western woman known missing in Iraq at the time the body was discovered, Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, Polish-born and also a long-time Iraqi resident. Khalifa was released by her hostage takers on 20 November.

On 16 November, CNN reported that 'CARE' had issued a statement http://www.careusa.org/newsroom/pressreleases/2004/nov/20041116_hassan.asp indicating that the organization was aware of a videotape allegedly showing Hassan's murder. The British Foreign Office has yet to confirm the tape as genuine. Al-Jazeera reported that it had received a tape allegedly showing Ms. Hassan's murder but was unable to confirm its authenticity. The video shows a woman, referred to as Hassan, being shot with a handgun by a masked man.

On 1 December, newspapers reported that dental tests carried out on the body found in Fallujah showed that the body was not Hassan's. The British Foreign Office stated that they still believed she was dead.

It is not clear who was responsible for Hassan's abduction and murder, and there have been no claims of responsibility as with previous abductions.

The director of the spinal cord clinic she supported in Baghdad, Qayder al-Chalabi, called her loss a huge blow to all Iraqis. "(The killers) made a very big mistake. This was a wrong person", he said on 17 November. "We need to admire and remember her. We must have a ceremony every year to remember her". He believes that a statue should be erected in her honour.

Arab media response to killing

The Arab media largely ignored the slaying of Margaret Hassan and instead focused heavily on a U.S. Marine shooting and killing a wounded and apparently unarmed man in Iraq. Most of the major Arab news agencies failed to even report on the new video of Ms. Hassan being slayed yet ran, frame by frame, the video of the shooting from the Marine. Al-Jazeera was one of the Arab stations airing the Marine shooting, yet did not air the video of Margaret Hassan, despite having the video on hand. The station said it had received a videotape showing Margaret Hassan being shot in the head at close range by an unknown man, but had chosen not to broadcast it. When asked why the Hassan video was not shown Jihad Ballout, an Al-Jazeera spokesperson, said "We don't show acts of killing... We've never done it before, outside war".

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