Fatima Michelle Vieuchanger: Female French-Moroccan journalist who
disguised herself as a man
disguising himself as a woman in order to gain credibility with an elite U.S. commando squad allegedly trying to
assassinate Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. On assignment with L'Express
Marrakech, Vieuchanger published riveting accounts of her/his forays into Baghdad with the American
commandos,
using the pseudonymous byline Michel Vieuchange (the real name of a Frenchman who infiltrated a disputed region
of southern Morocco disguised as a Berber woman in 1930). Operating out of a suburban safe house, they stalked
the Iraqi leader by day and night, using a stolen Iraqi Army jeep, a decrepit VW microbus, and racing camels to
follow intelligence leads about Saddam's whereabouts. After a CNN report showing a smiling Saddam reclining in a
Winnebago, they targeted every RV in the Baghdad region. Saddam survived. On another occasion the squad
commander got Vieuchanger to help disguise them all as Arab peasant women in order to infiltrate a street market
where Saddam had supposedly set up temporary headquarters; to maintain her identity, Vieuchanger used a Ziploc
plastic baggie and straw under her robe to help her simulate urinating like a man with the others behind a
vegetable tent. “The Americans knew that a ‘woman' who could pass for Iraqi would be useful,” she commented
about her layers of gender deception, “but they never would have accepted me if they thought I was a real
woman.”
VIEUCHANGER 1.x OPTIONS
VIEUCHANGER 2.x
VIEUCHANGER 3.x
