ndent for Ashour, the Christian TV broadcaster, wearing the map is her way of making a political protest.
“Officials now speak in the name of their sects, not in the name of the country,” she said. “Whenever I say my name and people say, ‘Oh, you must be Christian,’ I show my pendant and say: ‘I’m Iraqi.”‘
Michael says when people see her necklace they give her a thumbs-up and say “Afiya,” which loosely translates as “Bravo.” Her mother urged her to stop wearing it after Bahjat’s slaying and after the February kidnapping of another female TV correspondent, Reem Zaeed, who also was wearing a map necklace when she was snatched. Her whereabouts remain unknown.
“But I refuse to take it off,” Michael said. “They will be taking it off my body after I die.”
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