Don't Shoot the Clowns ― Taking a Circus to the Real Iraq

Don’t Shoot the Clowns is the account of one woman’s experience of living with Iraqi -people during the war and its aftermath. An intense and engaging story, it combines the reality of a country coping with invasion and occupation with the extraordinary story of the traveling circus set up to bring clowning and laughter to the children.

As a human rights observer, Jo Wilding, a young British trainee lawyer and solidarity activist, witnessed and recorded some of the worst atrocities committed against ordinary civilians. And as the occupation started, she joined a group of performers to put on circus shows in squatter camps, hospitals, schools, and orphanages.

Jo Wilding isn’t a journalist but a new kind of “citizen reporter,” instinctively recording events and publishing directly online. Her daily accounts have an immediacy and accuracy that bring the scenes sharply into focus. From the shocking and painful stories of the siege of Fallujah to the crowds of mesmerized children given some respite from horror and uncertainty by the clowns, every episode vividly evokes what day-to-day life in Iraq has been like.

Jo Wilding is a human rights lawyer working in London. In the last few years she has been an activist, blogger and clown. Her weblog from Iraq (www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com) was read all over the world during the war and the ensuing occupation. She was one of 1,000 women worldwide jointly nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.