Attuned to Tom and Jerry

مقال لكاثي كيلي تعرض فيه معاناة أم داؤود و زوجها وأطفالها الخمسة. قبل الحرب كان يملك أبو داؤود محلاً تجارياً لصياغة المعادن الثمينة تعرض أبنهم الأكبر للأختطاف، أثنان من أخوان أم داؤود قُتلوا و أضطروا بعد التهديدات الى ترك العراق وهم الآن يُتهمون بكونهم غير قانونيين في بقائهم في الأردن. أثنان من بنات أم داؤود مصابين بداء السكري و بدأ نظر أحداهما يأفل

by Kathy KellyJuly 24, 2007
Last week, Umm Daoud, (her name means "Mother of Daoud"), met me and three friends at a bridge that crosses into her neighborhood. It was just after sundown; the streets were darkening as she guided us toward the narrow path which leads to her home. She and her five children live in a humble two room apartment in a crowded "low-rent" area of Amman. As guests, my friends and I sat on a makeshift piece of furniture, an old door placed atop two crates and covered by a thin mat. She and her children sat on the floor. Apart from a television and a small table, the living room had no other furniture. The television remained "on" while Samil, her youngest son, seemed completely absorbed in a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon. "Tom and Jerry" antics are a favorite in almost every home I visit here. Spanning multiple generations and regions, the duo's popularity seems to reflect benign values. "Sometimes Tom wins and sometimes Jerry, and sometimes they both win, especially if they team up against an enemy," a young Iraqi woman told me. "You love them both. It's a bit like fights between brothers and sisters." Incalculably less benign are the "real life" chase scenes Umm Daoud's family has endured. When I first met them, five months ago, Abu Daoud, the father, told me that he had been a prosperous goldsmith in Baghdad. "We had two houses and two cars," said Umm Daoud. "Now, I have two brothers killed, and all this suffering, and no way to take care of my children." Abu Daoud told us that two years ago, Daoud, his teenage eldest child, was kidnapped for ransom in Baghdad. Fearful for their son's life and wanting to save him from torture, the family sold all that they had, gained his release, and swiftly escaped with him into Jordan. Abu Daoud came to Amman and moved his family into their current home, hopeful that he might eventually find work. But for an "illegal" resident in Jordan, among hundreds of thousands of others who've fled Iraq, there was no work. He sought help from the few groups doling out rations of food and assistance with rent. Young boys would taunt him, calling him an old man and an "Iraqi terrorist", while adults would threaten to report him to the authorities as an "illegal" - but still he had to keep seeking work. Three months ago, Abu Daoud learned that his cousin, in Iraq, had received a death threat. The cousin tried to flee Baghdad, but was unable to do so swiftly enough. When his body was found, it was chopped into pieces. This news further traumatized Abu Daoud. Engulfed by pain and misery, he became abusive toward his wife and children. Fights erupted between them. Two months ago, Abu Daoud disappeared. His wife believes he fled because he couldn't bear facing them, each day, with his feelings of anxiety and guilt. Umm Daoud's eyes fill with smoldering fury as she spills out feelings of frustration, mistrust, and humiliation. Neighbors in adjoining homes practice a very conservative form of Islam. Even though Umm Daoud is a Sabean, she fears being judged harshly by them and opts to cover her head whenever she leaves the house. When her husband left her, some of these neighbors said this was a punishment she deserved. She'd like to live elsewhere, beyond their threats and curses, but she can't afford the rent anywhere else. Two of the daughters are diabetic, needing weekly insulin injections, but Umm Daoud can afford neither the medicine nor the lab work to track their illness. Now, one of her daughter's eyesight is failing. Untreated insulin can lead to full blindness. Umm Daoud has to hide all of this from her neighbors. They may be here for a long time, and if the neighbors find out that the girls are diabetic, she fears it could destroy their future. Would it be difficult to find suitors for them? I'm not sure. Looking at these beautiful young women, it seems unlikely, but blindness is a frightening condition, --who am I to guess? Umm Daoud herself needs medical attention for a kidney ailment, but her daughters' untreated medical crisis takes up all her attention. Caritas, a charity organization in Amman, offers free medical checkups for Iraqis, but no medications. Through registering with the UNHCR, the family became eligible for a "salary" of 60 Jordanian Dinar per month. This barely covers rent. A light fixture in the room where they all sleep is broken, but they can't afford to fix it, nor can they manage a simple plumbing job to repair a faucet that steadily, noisily leaks. They are too terrified to invite a repair man into the home because the daughters are vulnerable and could be exploited. If a man took advantage of them, they would have no recourse for protection because anyone could accuse them of being illegal residents, causing them to be deported back to Iraq. Umm Daoud has already been stung by the humiliation of being so vulnerable. Once, in Amman, a gang stole a sum of money from her. She reported it to the police. In the investigation, someone accused her of being a prostitute and the police department dropped the case. One note of good news gladdened Umm Daoud and her daughters. Daoud, the older son, excels in soccer and recently qualified for an Iraqi team invited to compete in Seoul, South Korea. For Daoud, a victim of torture when he was kidnapped, playing soccer has been part of recovery. He's in control on the field and the sport has been an important form of therapy. Numerous Iraqis in the "illegal" community pooled money for Daoud's trip. Toward the end of our visit, Daoud called from Seoul. The family was jubilant, except for little Samil, watching his Tom and Jerry cartoon with his back turned to the family. From where I sat, I could see his face. He showed no emotion whatsoever and never took his eyes off the TV screen. I remembered the playful ten-year old I'd first met, in January of 2007, a little boy whose eyes were alight and animated, who loved climbing onto his father's lap. The family seems to understand his need to withdraw. Before leaving, Noah Merrill, who, with his wife, Natalie, has worked hard to design a project called "Direct Aid Initiative," (see www.electroniciraq.net), suggested that they could help cover some of the family's medical expenses. He assured Umm Daoud that this would be an act of friendship, not charity. "Of course it's not charity!" she said, flinging her hands upward in exasperation. "You already have our oil!" She cocked her head slightly, a smile on her face. "You are perhaps living well with our oil," she said, as we all nodded our heads, "so this is not a charity." Such humor, as if this whole nightmare of the war and its complications were just brothers and sisters fighting, and she could wryly forgive. The UNHCR has appealed for $121 million dollars to assist Iraqis who've been displaced from their homes, 2.2 million of whom are internally displaced inside Iraq and close to two million more who have sought shelter in neighboring countries. UN documents appeal to people's charitable instincts, but UN workers know full well just how politicized the discussions have become. The U.S. could direct the amount of money spent on just six hours of the war in Iraq and fully meet the UNHCR request to assist millions of people who have barely survived this U.S. "war of choice." This week, the U.S. government will continue deliberating over how much money to earmark for particular defense expenditures. They will serve the insatiable demands of the largest lobby on Capitol Hill, the defense lobby, which is asking for a total of $648.8 billion dollars. Even Senator Kennedy, one of the few Senators advocating measures to benefit Iraqi refugees, recommends allotting $100 million in the 2008 defense budget for a new General Electric fighter engine. (The Boston Globe recently reported that the Air Force said it didn't even need the item.) Democratic candidates claim they are interested in ending the Iraq war. They claim concern for Iraqi victims. I believe these claims. Yet by obediently funding the war machine, most of them play predictable, scripted roles in a dull and murderous war without end. The victors are always the same, the bloated and menacing producers of weapons, - General Dynamics, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed, General Electric, - the fat cats whose menacing force always wins. The losers can watch their children become crippled, starved, maimed or dead. Period. Yesterday, Umm Daoud and her daughters paid me a visit. Samil chose to stay behind. He didn't want to miss an episode of Tom and Jerry.

Kathy Kelly (kathy @ vcnv. org) is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)
منظمة أمريكية للسلام: أصوات من أجل نضال مسالم خلاق
Iraq: One in seven joins human tide spilling into neighbouring countries
Patrick Cockburn in Sulaymaniyah
Published: 30 July 2007

السجون العراقية وضع مروّع :منظمة العفو تنتقد تجاهل دروس فضيحة أبي غريب

الزمان-أكرم عبد الرزاق

مازالت قضية آلاف المعتقلين العراقيين في المواقف والمعتقلات العراقية والأمريكية تثير الكثير من علامات الاستفهام، وموضع التشكي والمعاناة والألم من قبل آلاف العوائل العراقية التي أعتقل أبناؤها ومعظمهم في أعمار الشباب، بتهم ملفقة، أو لمجرد الاشتباه أو البلاغات الكاذبة. ومن المؤسف جدا أن فضائح المعتقلات باتت تأتينا من خلال الإعلام الغربي، والأجنبي، فضلا عما يصدر من تصريحات من الجهات المختصة وبخاصة وزارة حقوق الإنسان. وزيرة حقوق الأنسان في العراق صرحت مؤخرا أن هناك ما يقارب الـ 32000 معتقل في السجون والمعتقلات العراقية و القوات الأجنبية، وبينت رغبة الحكومة العراقية الاعتراف بكافة الاتفاقات الدولية الخاصة بحقوق الإنسان. وأوضحت الوزيرة أن المشكلة ليست بالتوقيع والاعتراف بهذه الاتفاقيات، إنما في امتلاك آليات تطبيق هذه الحقوق. وأكدت الوزيرة بأن علي المسؤولين كافة من سياسيين وحكوميين النظر الي الأرقام المهولة والمآسي التي تحدث في الشارع العراقي، واخذ قرارات جدية بشأن هذه الأمور. إكتظاظ المعتقلات فوق إستيعابها:جريدة "لوس أنجلوس تايمز" نشرت يوم 24 تموز الجاري تحقيقا من مراسلتها في بغداد مولي فيسك تحت عنوان "السجون العراقية في وضع مروع" قالت فيه: "إن السجون العراقية باتت اليوم مكتظة وعاجزة عن استقبال التدفق الهائل من المتهمين، كما أنها تحولت إلي وكر للفساد والرشوة والمماطلة". ووصفت مراسلة الصحيفة إحدي الغرف التي تتكدس فيها أعداد كبيرة من الموقوفين، قائلة إن رائحة العرق الكريهة والهواء الحار هما أول ما يستقبل المرء عند فتح الباب الخشبي الكبير لمعتقل الكاظمية ببغداد. ووصفت الكاتبة داخل السجن الذي يكتظ بالمعتقلين الـ 505 فبعضهم واقف والبعض الآخر جالس، المنكب بالمنكب علي أكياس الكرتون الفارغة والوسائد الملطخة ببقع الأوساخ، بينما تتدلي بعض الثياب والمقتنيات الشخصية الأخري المعلقة علي الجدار فوق رؤوس المساجين. ومضت فيسك بوصفها قائلة "إن رائحة المخلفات الآدمية الكريهة تزداد سوءاً كلما تقدم المرء داخل المعتقل باتجاه الحمامات، حيث يصطف عدد من المعتقلين الحفاة في وحل امتزجت فيه أشلاء القرميد بالمخلفات الآدمية ينتظرون أدوارهم للترويح عن أنفسهم، غير مبالين بكون الحمام نفسه يعج بتلك المخلفات الآدمية". مضيفة أن المعتقل الذي بني أصلاً لاستقبال 300 سجين، يحوي اليوم أكثر من 900 اختلط فيهم المتهم بالإجرام والمتهم بقتال المحتل ومن يبدو من حالهم أنهم أبرياء. ولاحظت المراسلة أن المعتقلات العراقية شهدت تزايداً كبيراً في عدد نزلائها منذ فبراير الماضي. ومن بين السجناء من لم تعالج جراحهم إلا جزئياً مما نشر الأمراض الجلدية، كما أن الظروف الصحية السيئة بشكل فادح تبدو أمراً عادياً هنا. وأضافت المراسلة بأن عددا كبيرا من الضباط الأساسيين المشرفين علي المعتقل هم موالون للميليشيات الطائفية، باعتراف الضباط الأميركان المشرفين، وأن هناك ممارسة لسياسة التمييز الطائفي، حيث أن بعض المعتقلين يتم إطلاق سراحهم بنفس اليوم، في حين يبقي آخرون شهورا عديدة قبل العرض علي القضاء. ونقلت مراسلة الصحيفة عن شخص مسؤول في لجنة متابعة أحوال السجناء (جاسم البهادلي) قوله أن حرس المعتقل منعوه قبل شهر من مواجهة المسجونين، كما حاولوا إخفاء السجناء الذين اعتقلوا دون أن توجه إليهم أي تهم. ويقدر هذا المسؤول نسبة الأبرياء من بين المعتقلين بنحو 60 - 70 بالمائة.الوضع في المعتقلات الأمريكية أكثر سوءاوبشأن المعتقلين لدي القوات متعددة الجنسية، أكدت وزارة حقوق الإنسان العراقية وجود 18000 سجين عراقي في معتقل (بوكا) في أم قصر بالبصرة، وحوالي نصف هذا العدد في معتقل (كروبر) في المطار ومعظمهم لم يعرضوا علي القضاء. ودعت إلي الإسراع في عرض جميع الموقوفين والمعتقلين علي القضاء العراقي للبت في أمرهم. وطالبت بضرورة دخول دائرة التسجيل الجنائي إلي كافة المعتقلات والسجون لتسجيل وتأشير المعتقلين، والتأكد مما إذا كانوا مطلوبين بقضايا أخري. آلاف المعتقلين محرومون من حقوقهم الأساسيةمن جهة أخري أعلنت منظمة العفو الدولية "آمنستي أنترناشيونال" أن آلافاً من المعتقلين في العراق لا يزالون يُحرمون من حقوقهم الأساسية. وجاء في التقرير: "يبدو أنه تم تجاهل دروس فضيحة سجن أبو غريب ولا تزال تصدر تقارير حول التعذيب في العراق". وقد أصدرت "آمنستي" تقريرها المؤلف من 48 صفحة بناء علي مقابلات أجرتها مع مساجين عراقيين سابقين. وقالت المنظمة في تقرير لها إن هناك أدلة وبراهين متزايدة علي أن قوات الأمن العراقية تمارس التعذيب. وقد اعترفت الحكومة العراقية علي لسان وزيرة شؤون حقوق الإنسان فيها بما جاء في تقرير منظمة العفو. وكان سجناء عراقيون سابقون قد قالوا لـ"آمنستي" إنهم تعرضوا للضرب بواسطة حبال بلاستيكية ولصدمات كهربائية وأجبروا علي الوقوف ساعات في غرفة أرضها مبللة بينما تيار كهربائي كان يمرر في المياه. واعتبر التقرير أنه يتوجب علي القوات متعددة الجنسيات والسلطات العراقية والحكومتين البريطانية والأمريكية التحرك بشكل طارئ وفوري لوضع حد لانتهاكات حقوق الإنسان. من جهة أخري، خلصت دراسة أعدتها لجنة حقوق الإنسان في المنظمة العراقية للمتابعة والرصد (معمر) الي تأكيد ان معظم من اعتقل في العراق سواء علي يد قوات الاحتلال، او قوات الحكومة قد تعرضوا للتعذيب بشكل او آخر. وبموجب استبيان شمل أكثر من 2711 معتقلا أطلق سراحهم ممن كانوا في قبضة قوات الاحتلال الأميركية وقبضة قوات الحكومة، فان معظم من يعتقل في العراق يتعرض للتعذيب ابتداء من السب والشتائم مرورا بالضرب والكي والاغتصاب، وأحيانا التصفية الجسدية وتحويله إلي جثة مجهولة الهوية مرمية في المزابل والطرقات

Azzaman International Newspaper - Issue 2756 - Date 26/7/2006

قناص النساء

الزمان د. صباح الخزرجي

Azzaman International Newspaper - Issue 2755 - Date 25/7/2006

يشكو الكثير من العراقيين الصامدين داخل وطنهم هذه الأيام من ظاهرة (غريبة عجيبة) في غدرها وقتلها للمدنيين المسالمين الذين يمشون في شوارع بعض المناطق والمدن التي تسمي (ساخنة). فبينما تسير التلميذة مريم غانم (9 سنوات) متجهة إلي مدرستها صباحاً، يتناثر عقلها البريء بفعل رصاصة عسكري رابضٍ خلف اكياس الرمل الخضراء علي مبعدة حوالي مائة مترٍ عن الطفلة البريئة، وكذا أصيبت السيدة أم أحمد ذات الخمسين عاماً بطلق غادرٍ في رقبتها بينما كانت تخطو أمام ناظري (القناص) المعتلي قمة البناية الشاهقة التي تطل علي ذلك الشارع الرئيس المهجور.وشهادة أخري ينقلها إلينا الموظف عمر أحمد (28 عاماً) عن منطقة أخري تقع جنوبي بغداد فيقول: القوات الأمنية الموجودة في الدورة تمنع المواطنين من الخروج حتي وإن كان سيراً علي الأقدام، وقد أصابت وقتلت عدداً من المواطنين الذين كانوا يسيرون في الشوارع من خلال القناصة المنتشرين علي أسطح بعض المنازل.شكا السيد أبو شهد (50 عاماً) من أحد القناصين (الماهرين) والذي يتخذ له موقعاً حصيناً وعشاً مستديماً من علي سطح النادي الجمهوري في ساحة عنتر، موقعاً أتاح له الفوز بلقب (قناص النساء ) عن حق وجدارة لأن كل ضحاياه هن من الجنس اللطيف والنساء عابرات السبيل في الجوار القريب.وقد أثار أبو شهد موضوعاً إنسانياً آخر بمناسبة انتهاء السنة الدراسية وحلول العطلة الصيفية للطلاب والشباب، الذين اعتادوا كل عام علي قضاء أوقات فراغهم في ممارسة الألعاب الرياضية وشتي الفعاليات الثقافية في ذلك النادي الرياضي الحكومي العريق، فتسأل: ما ذنب ولدي وصحبه عندما حرموا هذه السنة من تلك النشاطات الصيفية البريئة فهم لا يستطيعون دخول ذلك المنتدي الرياضي بعد الآن، لاحتلاله من قبل القوات الأمنية والعسكرية! لم أحر. جواباً ولكني وعدته باحتمال أن يجد صحفي الشجاعة الكافية ليكتب عن تلك الانتهاكات للحياة المدنية والسلم الاجتماعي، التي هي بلا ريب من الركائز الأساسية لحقوق الإنسان منذ شريعة جدنا حمورابي وصولاً للقوانيين واللوائح العالمية التي تبنتها واقرتها الهيئات الدولية ومنظمة الأمم المتحدة.ولكن ما شغلني وحيّر أفكاري هي قصة ذلك القناص العنيد وأصراره علي اختيار شريحة الأناث فقط كضحايا ليديه الآثمين دون غيرهن من شرائح المغضوب عليهم من العراقيين؟ !

Security forces snipers target females in Baghdad an article in the Azzman newspaper

مسؤول في البرلمان: 80% من الاطباء تركوا العمل في المستشفيات

24/07 /2007

كشف احد النواب ومقرر لجنة الصحة والبيئة عن تقارير رسمية اشارت الى ان 80 بالمائة من الاطباء العراقيين تركوا العمل في المستشفيات كليا.
وقال في مؤتمر صحفي عقده اليوم الثلاثاء مع اعضاء اللجنة اليوم الثلاثاء:"ان النسبة المذكورة تتوزع بين ذوي المهن الطبية الاخرين كاطباء الاسنان والصيادلة وذوي المهن الصحية".معلّلا :"ان السبب الرئيس في ذلك هو تدهور الوضع الامني الذي يعيشه العراقيون". واضاف:"ان تقارير اصدرتها وزارة الصحة العراقية حددت استشهاد 132 من ذوي المهن الطبية و 223 كادرا صحيا و 185 من الكادر غير التمريضي و 78 من كادر قوة حماية المنشات وهي حالة مآساوية لايمكن السكوت عنها". ولخّص :"مطالب اللجنة بدعوة الجهات الامنية لكشف المجرمين والقتلة ومتابعة ظروف الجريمة وكيفية التخطيط والتنفيذ لها ليتم دراستها بشكل جيد ووضع خطط وقائية لافشال مثل تلك المخططات اضافة الى ضرورة وضع وزارة الصحة اليات مرنه في تنقلات ذوي المهن الطبية والصحية من مؤسسة الى اخرى على وفق ما يقدره الاشخاص انفسهم".مشدّدا على:"المباشرة في تنفيذ خطط بناء المستشفيات والمراكز الصحية في المحافظات كي يتم الاستغلال الامثل لهذه الكفاءات في المناطق الجديدة التي يعملون بها ". وناشد:"مجلس النواب لاستصدار تشريع لحماية الكفاءات العلمية

الهيئة نت نينا "

Al Heye .net

A report by a member of Iraqi parliament, member of the health and environmental committee, reveald that 80% of Iraq's doctors abandoned working in Iraqi hospitalsHealth ministry statistics reveal: 132 skilled medical workers killed, 223 health workers, 185 outside nursing field and 78 hospital guards were also killed.
(S)He called for a protection force to be deployed to protect doctors and health workers. (S)He also called for pressing ahead with building health centres and hospitals in the provinces and to adopt a flexible approach towards requests of job transfers for doctors.

Continued violence causing gender role swap

BAGHDAD, 18 July 2007 (IRIN) - Until 2003, Salwa Khatab Omar, had been driven around by two drivers and accompanied by at least three guards who lived in a caravan next to her house in Baghdad. She lived in some style and without many responsibilities. Since the 2003 US-led invasion, however, Salwa, the wife of a former senior army officer, has found herself responsible for virtually everything. "My husband can't leave the house at all for fear of being targeted like other former regime officials," said Khatab, a 51-year-old mother of four. "Unlike before, I have to accompany my sons and daughters to their schools and colleges in addition to dealing with other household stuff," said Khatab. She said they had to leave their home and rent a house where nobody knows her husband and his background. Iraqi men are traditionally the breadwinners, while most women take care of other duties inside the house. Iraq's continuing violence, however, especially with threats against men, has forced some women to take on more family responsibilities - a phenomenon called "gender role swap" by some specialists. "Our society does not respect a man who sits at home while his wife works and feeds the family," said Kholoud Nasser Muhssin, a researcher on family and children's affairs at the University of Baghdad. "This phenomenon will definitely weaken the role of the father and reduce respect among children for their fathers in some families. It will adversely affect an already devastated society," Muhssin added. Mainly men killed in violence Since February 2006, when the golden dome of a revered Shia shrine north of Baghdad was blown up, Iraq's two major Muslim sects have been plunged into spiralling sectarian killings. A study published last year by the respected UK medical journal, The Lancet, found that men accounted for 91 percent of the violence-related deaths in Iraq. The controversial study, which was based on a survey of households in Iraq, but not on an actual body count, contended that nearly 655,000 Iraqis had died in three years of conflict in Iraq - over 10 times more than other independent estimates of the toll. Women collect bodies of dead relatives Two weeks ago, Fawziya Ibrahim Mohammed, a 36-year old housewife and mother of four, went through a grim experience when she had to go to downtown Baghdad to claim the bodies of her brother and two cousins from the main morgue: “Men would definitely be kidnapped and killed by Shia militia," she said. The three were allegedly kidnapped at a checkpoint manned by Shia-dominated police commandos south of Baghdad and handed over to the al-Mahdi army, a Shia militia loyal to radical religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr who is blamed for many killings. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found next day dumped in the street with their legs and hands tied. There were signs they had been tortured.

They [Shia militiamen] are always near the morgue to snatch Sunni men when they retrieve the bodies. We don’t want to lose any more men and that’s why I took the risk, although it was my first time to travel alone," Fawziya added. Conversely, Shia men have stopped travelling through Sunni-dominated areas, where Sunni militants are active, in order not to be kidnapped and killed. Last month, Abdul-Zahra Nassir Jumaa could not accompany his son's funeral procession to the southern city of Najaf, about 200km south of Baghdad, where Shias usually bury their dead. "We sent only the women, with a Sunni driver, as they had to get through Sunni-dominated areas in southern Baghdad where Sunni militants snatch Shia men and behead them immediately," Jumaa, a 55-year old Shia father, said. Muhssin said that - with many men fleeing the country, keeping a low profile at home, or in prison - more responsibilities would be transferred to women in the future. "If the security situation continues to deteriorate we will see women working as taxi or truck drivers; more of them will work in shops or as technicians or mechanics." sm/at/cb
see alsoAdeela Harith, “I have to scrounge around rubbish bins to feed my children”

Number of IDPs tops one million since Feb2006, says Iraqi Red Crescent

An elderly Iraqi refugee sleeps rough on the streets of Amman, Jordan. Even if Iraqis manage to flee the violence in their own country, they often face hardships in neighbouring nations

BAGHDAD, 9 July 2007 (IRIN) -
Photo: Dana Hazeen/IRIN

One of the dreams of tailor Ahmed Khalid al-Timimi was to make a school uniform for his oldest daughter so she could boast about it to her peers at school. However, his dream was dashed when he and his family were displaced as a result of the country's spiralling sectarian violence. He is now jobless and his daughter has not been able to go to school. "Leave or else have your wife and daughters decapitated," al-Timimi, a 39-year-old Shia father of two girls, recalled the note stuck to his door in Baghdad’s southern Sunni-dominated suburb of Dora.According to an Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) report, 142,260 families - about 1,037,615 individuals - have become internally displaced persons (IDPs) since 22 February 2006, when a revered Shia shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, was bombed by what many believe was a Sunni extremist group. Sectarian violence has increased sharply since that time.

"Currently, the number of displaced people is increasing at an average of 80,000-100,000 a month," said the IRCS report dated 5 July and relating to the period from February 2006 to 30 June 2007. The IRCS, the only humanitarian relief agency on the ground, said the nearly 67 percent increase in the number of displaced families since last January "is intensifying an already unstable situation". "By the end of June 2007 there were over one million IDPs, of whom 37.5 percent were children under 12; 32.8 percent were women and 29.7 percent were men," the 25-page report said. Topping the list of areas with most IDPs was the capital Baghdad with 41,969 families; second was Mosul Province with 15,063 families; and third was Salaheddin Province, about 200km north of Baghdad, with 12,781. "What have I done in my life to lose my house and job and see my dream of building a happy family fade away? Who should be blamed for all our misery?" asked al-Timimi, who lives with a relative in a tiny house in one of Baghdad's Shia neighbourhoods.
Displaced Iraqis

Some 142,260 families - about 1,037,615 individuals - have become internally displaced persons (IDPs) since 22 February 2006 Of these, 37.5 percent are children under 12; 32.8 percent are women and 29.7 percent are men. The number of displaced people is increasing at an average of 80,000-100,000 a month. Baghdad has the highest humber of IDPs with 41,969 families; Mosul Province is second with 15,063 families; and Salaheddin Province third with 12,781.
Source: Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS)

In addition to recording changes in the country’s demography, the IRCS report also mentioned the hardships which displaced families faced daily. Al-Timimi is now drowning in debt as he has to buy medicines for his wife who has cardiac problems and for his asthmatic youngest daughter. "I need at least 250,000 Iraqi dinars (about US$200) each month to ensure their treatment… From time to time, I sell cigarettes and soft drinks in the street,” he said. "The education sector has been negatively affected by displaced families in different governorates as schools saw a significant increase in the number of students per class. There is also a shortage of educational materials and stationery," the report said. IDPs have limited access to health care. This was having a serious effect especially on women and children: "Pregnant women, infants and children are unable to get the required medical care and illegal abortions have become the norm," the report said. Many IDPs also had psychological problems and some sought refuge with armed groups "as they [the armed groups] represented the true authority of the land for them... Rape, armed gangs, theft and drug addiction was common among IDPs", it said.

The IRCS said the large number of Iraqis in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran faced financial, medical and accommodation problems and received little help from aid agencies. “Without permission to work and with depleted savings, many Iraqis who have fled abroad, often overqualified, accept low-paid illegal work… the overall picture is that of a human tragedy unprecedented in Iraq's history," the report concluded. sm/ar/cb

On women’s NGOs in Iraqi Kurdistan: military occupation, “imperialist democracy” and “colonial feminism”

www.rwor.org/

This article by Shahrzad Mojab is taken from issue no. 16 of Eight March, the magazine of the Eight March Organisation of Iranian and Afghanistan Women. It is based on a speech she gave in Stockholm, Sweden, June 21, 2006 regarding her research into NGOs in some Middle Eastern countries and in particular Iraqi Kurdistan. We have translated only the second part of a two-part article. The explanations in parentheses are ours. Mojab is a researcher, author and activist on women’s issues. She is currently the director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute and an Associate Professor in the Department of Adult Education and Psychology at University of Toronto, Canada.

مقال مهم بقلم شهرزاد مجوب باحثة،كاتبة وأكاديمية. وهي رئيسة معهد دراسات المرأة و الجندر و مساعد برفسور في جامعة تورنتوالكندية

المقال هو جزء من بحث قامت به الأكاديمية شهرزاد في المنطقة الكردية في العراق حول العمل النسوي ومنظمات المجتمع المدني وترى شهرزاد أن عمل أغلب هذه المنظمات هو سطحي، أصلاحي بطبيعته وأن حضورهن في الساحة السياسية للنضال ضد مصادر الظلم و الحيف الأجتماعي و الأقتصادي و السياسي التي تعاني منه المرأة غير موجود. بل أنهن منشغلات بالتعامل مع مظاهر الظلم ضمن أطار العمل السياسي الذي يكرس هذا الظلم

و تستنتج شهرزاد بأن ينقص هذه المنظمات التي تضاعف عددهابعد الغزو الأمريكي الوعي العميق بطبيعة العمل النسوي- الفمـنيزم و تعتبر عملهم عمل نسوي ليبرالي

I travelled to the Kurdish area of Iraq to study and observe women’s activities there at close range for the first time in 2000. Then last summer I travelled to this region again to visit the non-governmental organizations of Iraq. When I arrived and came across the activities of Kurdish women, it was a very familiar environment for me, since I had done thorough research on Kurdish women in the recent decades, and also due to my familiarity with the NGO activities of Kurdish women in Turkey. In the Sulaymaniyah region of Iraqi Kurdistan I investigated eight women’s NGOs in detail.
Before summing up my studies and research, I would like to point out the achievements of these NGOs. I think that those women who work in these NGOs are very courageous and fearless. They work in very difficult conditions and take very dangerous risks. So any small achievement is very important and I would not say that these organizations are completely useless. But despite their importance we should not avoid criticizing them, because we want them to advance, and also because we want the situation for women in the region and in particular in Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish Kurdistan to improve.
I want to talk particularly about the nature of these kinds of NGOs. I would say that they are active around civil services and the aid they provide is more of an individual character. In fact these NGOs are shouldering the kind of services that governments should be providing for their citizens.
But these all are the appearance of the issue; a more thorough examination will reveal greater complexity. At present most of these organizations work toward a specific stated goal. For example, they seek to fight violence against women. But this fight takes place in very limited forms and does not achieve the desired results. Because what they mean by this violence is limited to the most brutal forms carried out against women by the patriarchal, feudal and tribal system and in particular honour killings, and because the kind of solution they present to fight that violence, such as finding or building shelters for the women involved, and emphasising mainly that, actually contributes to directing this struggle away from its main targets.
These organisations carry out very short-term and limited projects in areas such as literacy. They make an effort to establish a kind of small and limited household economy (women working in their homes), such as handicrafts and sewing, in order to obtain some limited income for the women. They also conduct programs to aid refugees who have moved from other parts of Kurdistan, and to support Anfal widows (the estimated 6,000-7,000 women widowed during Saddam’s campaign against the Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s). Also they carry out short and limited educational courses--in the form of limited political training--with the aim of enabling women to manage a service-provider organization, and not with the aim of launching a social movement. However some NGOs have published papers on major women’s issues, reflecting women-related issues that are discussed in the official news and also interviewed authors, experts on women’s issues, poets and researchers.
In terms of organizational form, it can briefly be said that these organizations are controlled and run in the same way any classical administrative office is run or controlled. One person is responsible for the organization, another person is the secretary and others take the different jobs available to that organization. The boards of directors responsible for oversight consist of well-known personalities of the town or city, who usually belong to one of the two main Kurdish parties (the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, and the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, KDP, which together run the U.S.-established government in Iraqi Kurdistan and play a fundamental role in the U.S.-backed alliance governing occupied Iraq). These connections facilitate access to more financial aid.
These NGOs claim and emphasize that they are politically independent. When I examined the relationships between them and the two parties more carefully, I noted that by independence they mean not relying organizationally or financially on any particular political party. But as was mentioned earlier, the influence of the various political parties through representatives on the executive boards of these NGOs, family ties between board members and important party members, and the special relations often established between such people, is what tends to give these NGOs access to the resources they need. Therefore it is necessary to consider more carefully what they mean by the term “independent.”
Another point I would like to raise is related to the dominant ideology in the U.S. and the importance the American government gives to these NGOs as a means for the promotion of this ideology. According to this ideology, the free market economy is equivalent to civil society and that is equivalent to democracy. According to a report from UNIFEM (the United Nations women’s organisation), there were 175,000 NGOs in the Arab world in 1995. After the occupation of Iraq in 2003, that number increased to 225,000. The report also points out that despite the varying political environment in different regions of the Arab world, and despite different political systems, NGOs in that region have not been able to play an influential and constructive role in determining the future of those countries or in their economic and political reconstruction. The existing NGOs in Iraqi Kurdistan are no exception to this general rule. We cannot claim that the women’s NGOs in Iraqi Kurdistan are able to play a fundamental role in the political environment there.
One of my conclusions is that these organizations lack a feminist consciousness. By feminism I mean science, knowledge, theory and social movement. The NGOs activities are more inclined to provide aid on the level of civil services to individuals, and they do not take as their political and economic target the patriarchal, feudal and tribal, nationalist and religious capitalist system of Iraqi Kurdistan. At best they are demanding a series of legal reforms and even that in limited forms. Regarding change and development in Iraqi Kurdistan, available documents show that since 1992 (when the U.S. effectively set up the PUK-KDP government there), the only legal reform carried out concerns honor killing. Even that very limited legal reform was due to increasing pressure from Kurdish women inside and outside the region, and also international pressure, in the face of honor killings committed outside the region. (For instance, the notorious case of a young Kurdish woman killed by her father and brother in Sweden.) These officially authorized reforms have not influenced the situation, since there is neither the executive power nor the political will to implement the law.
In other words, at best these organizations will promote the liberal feminism favoring a series of officially authorized reforms, and even these have been very limited so far.
The second problem concerning the NGOs is their organizational structure. If we examine them thoroughly, we see that these organizations are a mixture of classic charity organizations and classic administration offices with all the bureaucratic elements of governmental offices. So however they may deny it, this is the reality of their relations and hierarchy, their formation and management. All the NGOs, even the progressive ones in the Western world, share this same form of hierarchy to some extent… In fact, these NGOs have become the basis for an intellectual and professional section of Kurdish women to improve their social position and financial situation.
Another problem is the kind of programmes that these organizations put forward. In all cases the programs are short-term and are carried out project by project, and not part of a long-term all-around effort towards eliminating patriarchy. In fact, these programs tend to simply provide social services in the form of short-term projects. In feminist literature, it is said that the leaders of the women’s NGOs have become “femeaucrats” (like bureaucrat). The women who work in the framework of these bureaucratic relations and the organizations themselves do not have a feminist outlook, and as result lack any perspective of contributing to the fight against patriarchy and male domination.
At the same time the same phenomena that have emerged in other parts of the Middle East, from Palestine to Jordan, Turkey and Syria, can be seen here… For example, when it is asked “What are your goals?”, they answer “gender mainstreaming” or “women’s empowerment.” It is worth mentioning that there are thousands of “women’s empowerment” schemes all over the Middle East that include literacy promotion and small-scale economic projects like the production and selling of handicraft items. This setting up of workshops for the production of these goods for export is a particularly common example of what is meant by “women’s empowerment.” When I carefully examined this phenomenon in Iraqi Kurdistan, I found that many women are fed up with these workshops and refer to them as unworkable and useless.
I was in Iraqi Kurdistan at the time when the draft constitution was written (under U.S. supervision), and according to the NGO women, they complained that they were kept especially busy in certain workshops. When I asked why, they replied that the USAID (the American government agency responsible for non-military foreign “aid”) had handed 10,000 U.S. dollars in cash to some of these organizations to produce and distribute advertising in favor of the new constitution and get people to vote to approve it in the referendum. These women also complained that no one wanted to listen to what they had to say concerning results of the meetings to discuss the constitution and the referendum they held with people in the villages and various towns and cities. They were also unhappy that Islam had been made the basis of the constitution, and feared that as a consequence they could be robbed of their social involvement.
In short, the circumstances of the NGOs in today’s Iraqi Kurdistan are the same as are dominant in other regions of the world, including Asia, Africa and Latin America. All of them have been engaged in three processes:
1) The bureaucratization of the women’s movement.
2) The professionalization of the women’s movement, i.e. the provision of civil services for women by another section of women, who take up this activity as their profession, with the corresponding “professional” skills and methods.
3) The institutionalization of the women’s movement, i.e. turning the women’s movement into a private and petty institution instead of a social movement.
Sara Roy, who has worked on Palestinian questions, raises a point on NGOs that can be extended to Iraqi Kurdistan. She says that NGOs choose a social problem and then compete with each other over whose issue is most important. In effect, what they are trying to do is pour water on the particular social problem. That is why I say that NGOs have no established program to struggle against patriarchy. They take some of the social phenomena such as honor killings and the circumcision of women as their chosen acute social problem and then try to organize some projects on these issues to pour water on the fire of religious and feudal patriarchy. However, these fires will not die out so easily.
In order to go deeper into the discussion, I will refer to new research by Sabina Lang on NGOs in Germany. Lang says that the existence of numerous women’s organizations does not at all mean building a feminist platform, neither at the basic level in society nor at a national level. While the activities of these organisations may improve the life of individual women, they remain silent--and can only remain silent--about the violence of patriarchy as a whole. Thus the individual decisions of a small group of professionalized women replace a powerful women’s movement. These observations may be about Germany, but Lang says that this is an international phenomenon today.
Haifa Zangana, who has done some of the best research on NGOs in Iraq and in particular women’s NGOs, writes that as opposed to the male chauvinist violence of U.S. military attacks and the war in Iraq, which she calls hardware, the NGOs and in particular the women’s NGOs have been acting as social software. She says this software, which is also destroying the entire social structure of the society, can be considered another kind of violence against women. There has not been much discussion about this. But in my study of the impact of the war on women, I have concentrated on this aspect. I have not concentrated solely on the military aspect and how women have been the victims of militarism and the war, but more on the consequences of the war and violence, which have more impact on women…
The last point I want to raise is that in the last three decades, U.S. imperialism, in order to counter revolution in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the former Soviet bloc countries, has resorted to NGOs in an attempt to replace social movements--such as those of student, women, workers, peasants and youth--by developing and extending these NGOs, not only to control these movements but even to prevent them from taking shape in the first place. In fact when the top officials of the Bush regime and the imperialist financial and banking institutions and United Nations emphasize civil society, by which they mean a collection of NGOs, they have two aims: On the one hand to crush social movements which have an anti-imperialist and anti-reactionary character, and on the other to establish a social and political base for advancing their ideological goals in these societies. This last point is very important.
How does this happen? I can give an example of how this is happening in Kurdistan. After the overthrow of Saddam, the Bush regime invited Iraqi women, including Arab and Kurdish women, to the U.S. for “Democracy Training.” One of the institutions that provide “Democracy Training” is the American Enterprise Institute, an extremely conservative, anti-woman, anti-feminist and racist organization (in fact, the Bush neo-cons' current main think tank). The U.S. State Department allocated $10 million for controlling the women’s movement in Iraq. This money was given to the Independent Women’s Forum, an organization that like the American Enterprise Institute is extremely anti-woman and anti-feminist. This organization opposes the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women--CEDAW, the most important UN document on discrimination against women. If we have a look at this organization’s Web site, we see their 10-point answer to the question of why they consider the Convention “an enemy of women.” For example, they claim that this Convention intends to spread “socialist ideas.” The Independent Women’s Forum is an anti-abortion Christian fundamentalist group in the U.S. One of its leaders is Lynne Cheney, the wife of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. And this is the kind of organization that is training Kurdish and Arab women in Iraq in democracy.
In criticising the NGOs and U.S. imperialist programs, I do not mean to say that every single NGO or every NGO activist is dependent on that imperialist power. There is no doubt that NGOs can turn into a battleground of struggle between social movements, oppressed classes and sections of the people on the one side and regional states and the imperialist powers on the other. Some of them have already turned into such battlegrounds. We have seen, for example in India, NGOs that fight for the rights of 40 million Indian widows. And we see that there are organizations that have won important achievements. But what is important in Kurdistan is how Kurdish nationalism will react to these imperialist programs and to what extent these nationalists will rely on them. It is also important to note that at present many Kurdish nationalists are happy about and satisfied with the U.S.’s attention to them.
In such a situation, the new section of women intellectuals and women professionals can turn into a social base for U.S. imperialist domination, i.e. a force that works as an indirect instrument of the conservative, anti-feminist and anti-woman U.S. in the current situation in Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. For this reason we should not underestimate these projects and take them lightly. Kurdish women who have been trained in “democracy” by the enemies of democracy, i.e. the U.S. conservatives, have been appointed to high posts in the Iraqi national and Kurdistan governments and have taken the path of the modernization of patriarchy and the male chauvinist system. We must dare to raise these points. I emphasize again that my criticism of NGOs doesn’t mean that they all are taking this path consciously. If we don’t criticise they will not notice what path they have taken and that is my aim.

Sex Slaves Recount Ordeals

Women looking for work are being tricked into sexual slavery, with some trafficked abroad.

By Sahar al-Haideri in Mosul (ICR No. 225, 29-June-07)

Asma's family was facing dire financial problems when a man in his 60s came to her father with an offer they couldn't refuse: he said he would hire Asma for 200 US dollars a month to help take care of his wife, who was handicapped.Asma's mother is blind and her father is disabled, leaving them struggling to make ends meet. The man assured the couple that Asma could visit them, and that he would raise her with his daughters. The impoverished family took him up on the offer, but Asma, 17, had no idea what was in store for her. "My work was not only in the kitchen; I had to have sex with son of the man who hired me and his four or five friends," she said in an interview after fleeing a life of sexual slavery. "I left my father's house a virgin and now I am… "She stopped speaking. Her father said nothing except, "I put my trust in God.”The deteriorating security situation and absence of law and order has allowed sexual slavery to grow in Iraq, with traffickers able to sell victims without fear of punishment. According to the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, issued in June, Iraqi women and children are forced into prostitution and trafficked inside Iraq and abroad, to countries like Syria, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Iran.In the volatile northwestern city of Mosul, near the Syrian border, girls and young women from poor and illiterate families are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Many of those hired as domestic servants end up becoming sex slaves.Khaled, 45, who readily admits to involvement in the sex trade, wears jeans and a yellow T-shirt with four or five rings on his fingers and bracelets around his wrist. This reporter witnessed him speaking to a client about whether he preferred a brown or white girl or woman as a sex slave."I know some families who are ready to have their daughters work to earn a living for them," he said. "Some ask me if [their daughters] can only work in kitchens, while others try to close their eyes and pretend that they have no idea that their daughters are being used as prostitutes."Other women seek Khaled out on their own, but don't always know the full extent of his business. Zaineb, 20, is a thin and beautiful woman with light-coloured hair. She felt financially responsible for her family because her father was arrested by the US military, her mother was ill and she had younger sisters that needed support. Zaineb got a job through Khaled, but to her horror discovered that she had been forced into prostitution."I [have to] sleep with different men each night," said Zaineb, who managed to contact IWPR. "[My boss] and his friends always take me to a farm, where they get drunk, and then have sex with me. I cry, asking for help from my father and mother, but how can they hear me?"Victims of sexual slavery in Iraq have little support from the police or the courts. Iraqi law only criminalises the sexual exploitation of children.Many women are tricked into sex slavery in Iraq with the promise of a new life in the Gulf.Khaled convinced 18-year-old Alia's family that a man in the Gulf wanted to marry her, and paid for her passport and new clothes."Like any other bride, I was happy," she said. "But I discovered after I travelled to the Gulf that the bridegroom was a nightclub manager who used many other Iraqi girls for prostitution. I managed to flee after 10 humiliating months. "I was screaming when one of [the men] had sex with me; they considered me a slave that they had bought. I lost my dreams, hopes and future."The state department report noted that the Iraqi government did not prosecute any trafficking cases this year, nor did it offer protection for victims or make efforts to prevent or document trafficking. It also said efforts needed to be made to "curb the complicity of public officials in the trafficking of Iraqi women".The names of people mentioned in this story have been changed to protect their identity.

Sahar al-Haideri was an IWPR journalist working in Mosul. She was murdered there in June 2007.

كثيراً ما يتم خداع النساء الشابات ليعتقدن بأن زواجاً وحياة أفضل تنتظرهن وراء البحار. عالية (18 عاماً) قيل لها إن رجلاً من إحدى دول الخليج يرغب في الزواج بها، حتى أنه رتب لها مسألة الحصول على جواز سفر وملابس جديدة. وتقول عالية: "مثل أي عروس أخرى، كنت سعيدة. لكنني اكتشفت بعد أن سافرت إلى الخارج أن العريس كان في الحقيقة مدير ناد ليلي، قام بشرائي مع فتيات عراقيات أخريات للعمل في البغاء في ناديه. وقد تمكنت من الهرب بعد عشرة أشهر
لاحظ تقرير وزارة الخارجية الأميركية حقيقة أن الحكومة العراقية لم تقم بمقاضاة أي من الحالات الخاصة بالاتجار بالبشر حتى هذا الوقت من العام الحالي. واستنتج التقرير أنه ينبغي بذل جهود من أجل "الحد من تواطؤ مسؤولين في القطاع العام في مسألة الاتجار بالنساء العراقيات".

الغد الأردنية- المتجرون بالبشر يجدون موردا جاهزا في العراق - سحر الحيدري

الى دمعة لاجئ عراقي .. والى سارة يوسف

كتابات - نرمين المفتي

ظهر اللاجئ العراقي علاء عبد الستار عبد الجبار في برنامج وثائقي عن اللاجئين العراقيين في سوريا. كان جالسا بقرب ابنه الصبي الذي اصيب بتشوهات كبيرة في وجهه و جسمه بسبب حريق. الصبي لم يتكلم، و بدا الأب في بداية حديثه متألما يشرح حالة ابنه الذي حرمته التشوهات من الحياة السوية، لا مدرسة و لا لعب مع الصغار الذين يخافونه بسبب تشوهاته. و لأنه لم يجد اذنا تسمعه في عراق (التحرير) و لم يجد علاجا له في العراق الذي يبحث بدوره عن علاج اضطر للجوء الى سوريا عله يجد منظمة تعالج ابنه او دولة تقبله مع اسرته لاجئا.
بدا علاء هادئا و هو يشرح معاناته مع ابنه و اقتراب الكاميرا من وجه الأبن، أظهر قسمات بلا تعابير، التهمت النار جلده و لم تبق مساحة كافية للتعابير لكن حزنا عميقا اخترق الكاميرا من عينين بالكاد تركتهما النار، و عادت الكاميرا الى وجه علاء و الدموع تحاول تغييب قسمات وسيمة و قال "دافعت عن العراق لسنوات و جرحت لمرات و ما تزال اثار الجروح في كل مكان من جسمي و لكن" و لم تدعني دموعه ان اسمع بقية حديثه او شكواه.
سارة،
تابعت اللاجئين العراقيين، لكل دمعته و قصته و عتاب على بلد يرفض ابنائه الذين يقفون في طوابير امام سفارات الدول الغربية و مفوضية الأمم المتحدة علهم يجدون يدا تمسح دمعتهم بالرغم من يقينهم بأن اليد الغربية و يد الأمم المتحدة لم تمنعا بوش من غزو العراق و تدميره.
ليست ابنتك وحدها كبرت قبل اوانها، بل يولد اطفال العراق و هم متشبعين بالهم و اذكر بأن جامعات امريكية (قديرة) قررت بعد حرب 1991 اجراء ايحاث ميدانية على اطفال امريكا مخافة اصابتهم بأمراض نفسية لمشاهدتهم مشاهد قصف العراق في التلفزيون و لم يفكر العالم كله بأطفال العراق الذينعاشوا و يعيشون الحرب كل لحظة و يلسمون الموت فيها و لم يفكر العالم بالعراقي الذي جردته الحروب و الحصار الذي تخللها من شعوره الانساني و اصبح يعيش الموت الذي يحاصره، الموت في التلفزيون و في الشارع و في الأحاديث و الكتابات و الشعر، الموت اول ما يخطر ببال اي عراقي حين يرن هاتفه، يوما ما ستعاتبك ابنتك لآنك انجبتبها، كما اتوقع ان يفعل ابني الذي ولد في حرب و اصبح تلميذا في الابتدائية في حرب اخرى و صبيا في الحصار و جامعيا في حرب اخرى و خريجا تحت الاحتلال و الموت المجنون اليومي. سألني يوما عن سبب معاناة العراقيين و اجبته بأنه اختبار من الله سبحانه، و بسخرية علق "ماما ليش دا نبقى دور ثاني بالامتحان دائما و يستمر الاختبار" و قلت " مدا نرسب بس كلما تخلص مرحلة دراسية ندخل مرحلة اختباراتها تكون اصعب" و قبل ان اكمل كلامي كان قد قرر انهاء المناقشة و علق " ما اريد اخذ دكتوراه بالصبر"!
لا ادري ان كان العراق ام نحن العراقيون وضعنا احدنا الآخر في "ديوان المحنة". كان الخليفة المأمون يقضي على معارضيه من خلال "ديوان المحنة" الذي ابتكره، و على مدى تاريخه الحديث دخل العراقيون في ديوان المحنة و لم يخرجوا منه.
سارة
نتقابل و نتتحدث لساعات و لكن دائما نتحاشى حديث الموت، ربما لأننا اصبحنا لا نلتقي كثيرا كما كنا نفعل قبل الاحتلال و هروب العراق. كم كنت اكرهك احيانا، هل قلت لك بأني كرهتك يوما؟ ها أنا اقولها الآن، كنت اكرهك و انت لا يحلو لك دق باب شقتي الا حين احاول الهروب من نفسي الى النوم. كأنك كنت تشعرين احباطي في ذلك اليوم و تأتين لأعيش ذلك الاحباط بتفاصيله. اليوم اقسم لو تأتين في اية لحظة لن اكرهك، انما سأحبك اكثر لتحديك العوارض الكونكيريتية و اسوار المناطق و الاسلاك الشائكة و الخوف الدائم لتصلي الى باب شقتي و اعلمك بأني اصبحت لا أنام كثيرا لأنني افتقد الأحلام.
اسير في شوارع بغداد التي لم تعد بغداد.. دمار في كل مكان و نفايات و اسلاك شائكة تصطاد (اكياس النايلون) متحولة الى عمل فني بدائي و قاس بعبثيته. احاول ان ابتسم في وجه صبي غادر اللعب و الطفولة و يقف تحت الشمس الحارقة يبيع البنزين و كلما يقف سائق يركض نحوه حاملا (الجليكان ابو العشرين لتر)، يركض متعرجا لثقل حمولته و يطلب السائق عشرة لترات فقط و لا على الصبي سوى ان يخرج انبوب بلاستيكي ماصا طرفه ليصب العشرة لترات، كم لتر بنزين يشرف في الشهر؟ لا اعلم. سألت احمد، الصبي الذي نجح الى السادس الابتدائي و يبيع البنزين في طرف رصيف ما في بغداد ان كان البنزين يذهب الى جوفه و هو يحاول سحبه؟ و كان جوابه بالايجاب و قال بأن اول رشفة بنزين قبل عامين حرقت شفته و لثته لكنه تعود عليه الآن و علق شقيقه الأكبر بسخرية " خالة اكو ناس تدمن حبوب و تكبسل و احنا صرنا مدمني بنزين"! و ضحك بصوت عال وطلب من احمد ان يكمل عمله بسحب البنزين, و بلمح البصر بدأ رتل امريكي يمر في الشارع المقابل و بسرعة اختبأ احمد مع (جليكان البنزين) خلف السيارة. خجلا من تصرفه قال "خالة اذا شافوا الجليكانات يجون و يرشون البنزين بالشارع).. و لحقه شقيقه الأكبر " والله عيب عليك اطلع و كمل شغلك ولوا".. و استوقفتني كلمتا (يرشون) و ( ولوا).. ربما لا يعرف احمد ان كلمة (يرشون) تكون احلى مع ماء الورد و العطر و هذا امر لا يحسنه المحتلون، لكن شقيقه استخدم (ولوا) بمكانه تماما متمنيا ان (يولون على طول). احاول ان ابتسم و اتخيل بأنني ابتسمت و يفاجأني حزن وجهي و غضب قسماته في مرآة السيارة الأمامية. جميعا نسينا كيف تكون الابتسامة و اتذكر بأننا قد نكون الشعب الوحيد على الأرض الذي كان كلما ضحك استدرك ( اللهم اجعله خير). لا يوجد شعب يخاف ذاكرته الجمعية الضحك سوى العراقيين.. هل نحن اسوياء؟ يا له من سؤال! و هل هناك سوي يتحمل كل هذا الوجع؟
سارة، صديقتي التي احب
علاء العراقي اللاجئ الذي اختصر كل العراق بدمعة و سؤال
هل تذكران دفاتر المذكرات التي كنا نتبادلها و نحن صغار؟
لا أدري لماذا كان ذلك المثل الغبي يتردد دائما بذاكرة الطفولة ( اجمل ابتسامة تلك التي تشق طريقها وسط الدموع)؟ من كان يحاول تهيأتنا للوجع؟ و من حق الابتسامة الآن ان تضل طريقها لكثرة الدموع و الحواجز. و هل تذكران تلك (الحكمة) الساذجة و التي تكررت في كل صفحات دفاتر مذكراتنا (الذكرى ناقوس يدق في وادي النسيان).. مرة اخرى من كان يكرر مجاولات استعدادنا للفقدانات القادمة؟
انا تركت مراسلة اصدقائي و صديقاتي الذين غادروا العراق، لا أملك ان احدثهم سوى ان الألم الذي يتجول في الشوارع و الذي يشاهدونه قطعا في الأخبار بعد ان اصبح اصطياد صورة جثة عراقية و بقعة دم عراقية مهنة الكاميرات العربية و الأجنبية، و لا اريد ان ابادلهم حديث الذكريات. لقد سقطنا جميعا في وادي النسيان و نسينا ان نهيأ العالم لوادينا هذا و ان نكتب له على ورق وردي في دفتر مذكرات طفولته " ايها العالم القاسي الذكرى ناقوس يدق في وادي النسيان"، ترى من يتذكرنا؟

تصريح صحفي.. عن قتل الحرس الحكومي امرأة حاملاً في حي الجامعة وقصف منطقة الضباط في العامل

اصدر قسم الثقافة والإعلام في هيئة علماء المسلمين تصريحا صحفيا ادانت فيه الهيئة جريمة قتل الحرس الحكومي امرأة حاملاً في حي الجامعة ببغداد مساء أمس الأحد، وقصف منطقة الضباط في حي العامل. وحملت الهيئة الاحتلال والحكومة الحالية وجميع من أيد الخطة وشرعها المسؤولية الكاملة عنها

تصريح صحفي قتلت قوات الحرس الحكومي مساء أمس الأحد 1/7/2007 م امرأة حاملاً قرب جامع (نجمة) في حي الجامعة ببغداد. وحدثت جريمة القتل عندما دخلت هذه القوة المنطقة وأخذت تطلق النار عشوائياً على منازل المواطنين فأصابت السيدة (شيماء محمد عباس منصور) أمام منزلها فأردتها قتيلة في الحال. وفي حي العامل ببغداد أيضاً سقطت 10 قذائف هاون على منطقة الضباط أدت إلى وقوع عدد من الجرحى بين المواطنين وإلحاق أضرار جسيمة في منازلهم. إن هيئة علماء المسلمين إذ تدين هذه الأعمال الإجرامية التي تجري ضمن ما يسمى بـ"خطة فرض القانون" فإنها تحمل الاحتلال والحكومة الحالية وجميع من أيد الخطة وشرعها المسؤولية الكاملة عنها.

قسم الثقافة والإعلام

17 جمادى الآخرة 1428 هـ2/7/2007 م

AMSI issued a press release condemning the indiscriminate firing of weapons by Iraqi forces in the Jami'a district of Baghdad, killing Shaima Muhamed Abbas Mansour, who was pregnant, in front of her own house on Sunday 1st July 2007

AMSI also condemns the firing of mortars on the same day on the district of Dhubat in Baghdad, causing many casualties amnongst the civilians.

APR - The Arrest of a Women in Tarimiyah

Monday, 02 July 2007
AMSI issued a press release condemning the arrest of Mrs Marwa Abdel Rahman Saed from her home in Tarimiyah north of Baghdad
on Friday evening by the American occupation forces.
the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) carried the occupation and the current government fully responsible for the safety of the detained woman; demanded immediate release.


Press Release
The American occupation forces arrested Mrs. Marwa Abdel Rahman Saed from her home in Albu Shilal in Tarimiyah North of Baghdad on Friday, 29 June 2007.
The residents of the area made a demonstration to protest the arrest of mentioned woman demanding to be released immediately.
It is noteworthy that the American occupation forces and the government forces from time to time arresting women in an attempt to pressure their so-called wanted relatives to surrender to these terrorist forces as told by high and dignity of women in the country.The detention of women is one of cowardly acts and the worst behavior on these forces, which take the anger and indignation of the Iraqis, which leads them to leave demonstrators to release them or carry out retaliatory revenge for endangered violated.
The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) condemns this heinous crime; carries the occupation and the current government fully responsible for the safety of woman in detention, and demands the immediate release.


AMSI Press Department
15 Jumadial-Akhira 1428 / 30 June 2007

تصريح صحفي.. عن اعتقال الاحتلال الأمريكي إحدى النساء في الطارمية شمال بغداد
اصدر قسم الثقافة والإعلام في هيئة علماء المسلمين تصريحا صحفيا ادانت فيه الهيئة جريمة اعتقال الاحتلال الأمريكي السيدة (مروة عبد الرحمن سعيد) من منزلها في الطارمية شمال بغداد مساء أمس الجمعة. وحملت الهيئة الاحتلال والحكومة الحالية المسؤولية الكاملة عنها وعن سلامة المعتقلة، وطالبت بالإفراج الفوري عنها.