On March 9, 2004, my friend, Fern Holland was killed—assassination-style—in Iraq. She, her colleague, and a translator were stopped at a checkpoint where they were shot by gunmen posing as Iraqi police. These gunmen riddled their car with AK-47 bullets and took her life at 33.
Fern wasn’t killed because she was a solider. She was killed because she was someone who cared about people.
When Baghdad fell, Fern traveled to Iraq to work for USAID and then later served on the Coalition Provisional Authority as a women’s rights specialist. It was this work that made her a target by extremists.
You see, Fern worked tirelessly at setting up Iraqi women’s centers around the country. These centers were places women could organize, learn political skills to participate in a democracy, and learn life skills.
These centers were not welcome by many extremists for a variety of reasons, and Fern was an easy target because she was white, blonde, and very outspoken in her quest for women’s rights in Iraq.
While she was doing this work, even more important work came to the forefront. Fern was a lawyer by trade and she helped draft the interim Iraqi constitution. It was Fern Holland who wrote the section of the constitution that allowed Iraqi women 25 percent of the seats in their national assembly.
On March 8, 2004, Iraqi leaders signed the interim constitution that included Fern’s provision. Women in Iraq now had more than just a seat at the table, they had a say in Iraq’s future. Fern was able to see her hard work come to fruition, but only for a day. Her tireless work on behalf of people she did not know, and who did not know her, lead to her tragic death.
In February 2003, I met Fern. I was looking for a place on the Hill as a young staffer and I wound up subleasing her room when she went to Africa to establish a legal clinic for sexual assaulted women. At the time of her death, the clinic had handled 118 cases including rapes, sexual assaults, wife beatings, family abandonment and sexual exploitation.
When she boldly went to Iraq, I took over her lease. From time to time, Fern would come back to the U.S. and would pick up her mail, chat about what she was doing, and then would head back out into the world to battle for her beliefs.
Today, six years later, the sadness is just as real, and my heart is just as heavy, as it was that moment I got the call about her tragic death. Questions still flood my mind as to why such evil would happen to such a good person. I often think in deep silence about the realities of war and the sacrifices of people like Fern.
Fern’s life has taught me many things. It is really easy to get cynical about work and life in Washington. But when I catch myself having a poor attitude, I think of Fern and her sacrifices and realize there is more work to be done to serve others. Her example has taught me to love my neighbor.
Her life has also taught me my time is not my own, and the most important things in this world are friends, family, and things we often overlooked. Fern also taught me that the greatest joy in life comes from investing in people.
News about war overseas often takes my thoughts back to Fern. In those times there is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that I can’t get out of my head: “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”
In one of Fern’s last emails she wrote, “I love the work and if I die, know that I’m doing precisely what I want to be doing — working to organize and educate human rights activists and women’s groups.”
In a day, an age where people usually think only of themselves, Fern was willing to die for something she believed in, people. And because of that, her life and work means something; it means others can live in a better world.
We tend to throw around the word “hero” allot these days. But I have learned that they are not on the sports field or on the tv or on the movie screen. They are the people who sacrifice for others; who die for others if need be.
Fern Holland will forever be one of my heroes. And I wrote this today so that others might know the work she did, and the life she led, because Fern deserves to be remembered.
Andy Polk is national security and foreign affairs advisor to Rep. Sue Myrick, R-NC.
