According to the documents, the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, after reaching the top of governmental and political power, forged his date of birth, to equalize his age with his spouse, so his date of birth is 28, April 1937.
Saddam Hussein (1937-2003), after he became the president of Iraq in 1979, every ear on 28 of April would be the celebration of Saddam’s birthday on the Media channels and everywhere whereas Saddam was born neither on that day nor in that year.
Saddam’s Date of Birth in three Documentary Evidences
First, according to the birth registration of the General Directorate of Civil Status Affairs al-Karkh in 1957, Saddam’s date of birth was 1/07/1939, like most Iraqi citizens whose date of birth is not clear. Second, another document of Karkh center focuses on the birthday of Saddam, also it is identified 1939 as the birthday of Saddam, the document has published at (Aleph Ba) magazine No. (761) on 27/04/1939. The magazine has provided 21 pages for the birthday of Saddam at that number, the magazine interviewed some personalities among them (Khairallah Talfah) the maternal uncle of Saddam; he said was Saddam was born in 1937. The third piece of evidence is Fuad Matar’s book which was published under the title of (Saddam Hussein, The Man, The Cause and The Future), the book identified (1937) as a birth year of Saddam.
But a paradox is seen in the narration of Matar, he stated at that year the notion of changing the Baath movement to Baath party had been progressed by (Michel Aflaq), Saddam became fatherless when he was born, he was at the age of eight, he hasn’t gone to school, his family wanted to be a farmer like the rest of villagers.
The paradox of Matar’s statement is the Arab Baath Movement altered to party in 1947. At that year Saddam was closed to eight years old. Thus it demonstrates that Saddam’s year of birth is 1939. According to the writer, the one who changed the life of Saddam was Adnan Khairallah, he became the motherly cousin of Saddam, both at the same age, Adnan described School to Saddam and encouraged Saddam to start study at Tikrit town, going to school was the first revolt of Saddam opposite his family requirements. It might be due to the encouragement of Adnan Khairallah to Saddam, when Saddam became the president of Iraq he rewarded Adnan to be the minister of the Iraqi defense. The birthday of Adnan is also helpful to find the right date of Saddam’s because Adnan was born in 1940, at that time Adnan was in the first grade encouraged Saddam to start study and Saddam was eight years, the result depicts Saddam was born In (1939). Furthermore, Hanna Batatu an Iraqi historian in a book under the name (Iraq, The Communists, The Baathists and The Free Officers) said Saddam was born in 1939.
As we mentioned above, Saddam has altered his date of birth for the sake of his wife (Sajidah Khairallah), since she was two years older than Saddam, Saddam did that due to not be the topic of the Iraqi media and tribally it was rare a man married to an older woman, although Sajidah was the maternal cousin of Saddam, they faced difficulties in their marriage process, for that reason Saddam worked hard to achieve Sajidah because Sajidah believed her family status was higher than Saddam, Sajidah’s father was an officer in 1941 and he became the general director of education in 1958, their process of marriage was after the Baathist coup in 1963 and the outcome of their marriage was five children, two boys and three girls.
Concerning Saddam’s naming, there are different opinions about his name, his uncle Khairallah Talfah in an interview with (Aleph Ba) magazine stated I named Saddam, conversely, Aljoumhourih journal in a private appendix for Saddam’s biography mentioned Saddam has named by Ahmed Abed Saddam’s aunt husband. On the other hand, Fuad Matar narrated in his book Hassan Majid Saddam’s parental uncle named him. For that reason, the author of the (Village Government) book Talib Al-Hassan believed it is possible people in the prominent personalities in Ouja village compete for naming the former Iraqi president because Saddam had power and people endeavored to approach him.
