Because Each Life Is Precious: Why an Iraqi Man Risked Everything for Private Jessica Lynch

When thirty-three-year-old Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief made the decision to risk his life and his family to save Private First Class Jessica Lynch -- an American soldier he did not know -- it was more than the everyday reckoning with death that permeates wartime. It was the culmination of a life spent at odds with the repressive regime that held his country.

Mohammed's story is a coming of age tale in a society where violence and betrayal were everyday events, where one in five adult males worked for the state's security apparatus, where a president-for-life demanded absolute loyalty and adulation. Yet even as he navigates a culture tarnished by brutality and corruption, Mohammed reveals unexpected sides of Iraq -- scenes of surprising tenderness and stubborn generosity -- and emerges as an unlikely hero whose values transcend ideology: honor, compassion, and an unshakable belief in the sanctity of human life.

Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaif is a 33-year-old Iraqi attorney who plunged into the middle of the biggest story of the recent war in Iraq: the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch. Granted asylum in the U.S. in April for his extraordinary act of courage, Mohammed is now employed by The Livingston Group, a lobbying firm in Washington, DC. He resides outside the city with his wife, Iman, and their six-year-old daughter, Abir.