Munjed Al Muderis

Munjed Al Muderis
Born	1972 (age 44–45)
Education	1991: graduated from Baghdad College High School, 1997: graduated from Baghdad University
Occupation	Orthopaedic surgeon, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, clinical lecturer

Dr. Munjed Al Muderis (born 1972) is an Australian Associate Professor in orthopaedic surgery, author and human rights activist. His pioneering work on prosthetics and patents on titanium devices that he designed places Australia at the forefront of osseointegration technology.

Al Muderis was born in Iraq and became a surgeon under the regime of Saddam Hussein. He was a medical student in Basra at the start of the Gulf War. As a junior surgeon, he fled from Iraq following an incident in which he refused to mutilate the ears of army deserters. He traveled through Indonesia and Malaysia and reached Australia where he was kept in at the Curtin Detention Centre. He was released after 10 months and carried on his career in medicine, eventually specialising in osteointegration surgery.

Al Muderis wrote the book Walking Free on his experiences in Iraq and in the Australian immigration detention system, and on his career in Australia.

Munjed Al Muderis was born under the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. His father was a former Supreme Court judge and had authority in the Marine Corps, while his uncle was a descendant of the second royal family and Prime Minister, back when Iraq was still a kingdom. His mother was a school principal who had been demoted for failing to join the Baath Party.

Al Muderis graduated from Baghdad College High School in 1991, where he was a classmate of Qusay Hussein. He went on to study medicine at various universities, including the Baghdad University from 1991 to 1997, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

At the beginning of the Gulf War he was a second year medical student in Basra. He fled the city in the early days of the war, returning later to see the aftermath of the Basra uprising.

In 1999, he was forced to flee Iraq when he was working as a junior surgeon at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre in Baghdad. A busload of army draft evaders were brought into the hospital for the top of their ears to be amputated under Saddam Hussein's orders. The senior surgeon in the operating theatre refused the orders and was immediately interrogated and shot in front of several medical staff. Instead of complying with the orders, Al Muderis decided to flee. He escaped the operating theatre and hid in the female toilets for five hours. Shortly after, he fled to Jordan before the authorities caught up with him and moved on to Kuala Lumpur. From there, he took a people-smuggling route to Christmas Island, where he was sent to Curtin Detention Centre. He was dehumanised there and addressed by his assigned number, 982. He was punished with solitary confinement and was repeatedly told to go back where he came from. In 2000, 10 months after being sent to the detention centre, he was granted refugee status and freed.

...
Wikipedia