15 Facts About Salam Pax

Salam Pax is the pseudonym of Salam Abdulmunem, aka Salam al-Janabi, under which he became the "most famous blogger in the world" during and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Salam Pax's was one of the first instances of an individual's blog having a wide audience and impact.

Salam Pax's father Adnan Abd al-Munim al-Janabi, a Sunni, worked for OPEC, his mother was a Shi'ite, while Salam himself became skeptical of religion.

Salam Pax travelled to Vienna, Austria, with his parents when he was 5, the family returned to Baghdad five years later.

At 16 years old Salam Pax returned to Austria alone in order to study at the Vienna International School where he became fluent in English in addition to German and his native Arabic.

When he went through his yearly allowance from back home in a month, his family brought him to Iraq in 1995, where Salam Pax continued his study of architecture at the University of Baghdad.

Salam Pax described the first two years as the most difficult period in his life:.

Salam Pax moved to London in 2007, where he took up journalism at City University London, and then lived in Beirut.

Salam Pax Abdulmunem returned to Baghdad in 2009 and started working as Communications Officer for UNICEF in Iraq in 2010.

The title of Salam Pax's site referred to his friend Raed Jarrar, who was working on his master's degree in Jordan at that time.

Raed did not respond promptly to e-mails, so Salam Pax set up the weblog for him to read.

Salam Pax continued to post updates to the site even after it was temporarily blocked in Iraq.

Salam Pax remained offline for weeks, writing his diary entries on paper in order to post them later.

In February 2005 a series of filmed reports by Salam Pax, produced by Guardian Films and transmitted by the BBC's Newsnight television programme, won the Royal Television Society Award for Innovation.

Salam Pax mentioned that his mother was Shia, and described his family as being secular in political orientation.