Sunday, January 18, 2004
Sunday 11/1/2004
Last night I cried, I went to bed feeling pain and sadness. Why you ask. Because I browsed through the Arabic Newsweek. Raed gave me a copy; he said you always like reading this magazine. This is the new edition, it had pictures of Saddam and Bin-Laden, the land mines that the US planted to blow up and ruin our lives. Then they come here and pretend to be the compassionate saviors…..
Ooooooh! In this issue they had many articles that celebrate the victory and the arrest of Saddam and the liberation of Iraq. One article in particular devastated me. Its title is “Sin in Iraq”, the author, he or she, I don’t know, I can’t differentiate the name so please pardon me, Christian Carel. The article talks about the availability of prostitution houses in the new Iraq. The article mentions the exact locations and the prices. It talks about a new wave of liquor stores, drug pills and places to view movies of low morals. The article had interviews with people that explain their happiness now because Saddam was forbidding all such things. There was an interview with a policeman. He said that there is nothing he could do to control women of low morals because the occupation forces simply release them when they are arrested. Had this article been published in an anti US newspaper, I would have said that they are lying and make it all up. I have never seen or heard of something like this. Isn’t it embarrassing for this newspaper to be issued in the US, to be read by the American public? Are they going to smile and laugh about this or are they going to feel embarrassment, are they going to say we shouldn’t talk about this? They should say, we won’t allow these transgressions to happen out of our respect for the Iraqi people, respect for the Iraqi people’s religion and their morals. That is, If have entered our land as friends to help us out, as they claim. If they have entered our land as enemies, this is exactly what they should do to expose their hypocrisy to the world. The pictures with the article doesn’t collaborate the article. The people in the pictures are averages citizens, one of them is holding a pepsi can, the other a bottle of mirinda (a soft drink), the dancing girls in the pictures work for a folk national dance company. It is an old and known traditional dance company. The article says that Saddam used to forbid the sales of alcohol and cut off the heads of women of lose morals. I say that is a lie. Had he been straight and careful about religion and morals, god wouldn’t have abandoned him. I believe that the Iraqi nation is waiting for an apology from the author of the article and the newspaper itself, that is if they have respect for the journalism profession and assuming their goals are noble. There are some that don’t respect this profession and wrongs it and stains the profession with embarrassment. I wonder where is the senior editor? How does he allow to print such a dirty article? I promise you I won’t buy this newspaper again, I will tell the story to every Iraqi.
[translation by www.ihath.com]
Last night I cried, I went to bed feeling pain and sadness. Why you ask. Because I browsed through the Arabic Newsweek. Raed gave me a copy; he said you always like reading this magazine. This is the new edition, it had pictures of Saddam and Bin-Laden, the land mines that the US planted to blow up and ruin our lives. Then they come here and pretend to be the compassionate saviors…..
Ooooooh! In this issue they had many articles that celebrate the victory and the arrest of Saddam and the liberation of Iraq. One article in particular devastated me. Its title is “Sin in Iraq”, the author, he or she, I don’t know, I can’t differentiate the name so please pardon me, Christian Carel. The article talks about the availability of prostitution houses in the new Iraq. The article mentions the exact locations and the prices. It talks about a new wave of liquor stores, drug pills and places to view movies of low morals. The article had interviews with people that explain their happiness now because Saddam was forbidding all such things. There was an interview with a policeman. He said that there is nothing he could do to control women of low morals because the occupation forces simply release them when they are arrested. Had this article been published in an anti US newspaper, I would have said that they are lying and make it all up. I have never seen or heard of something like this. Isn’t it embarrassing for this newspaper to be issued in the US, to be read by the American public? Are they going to smile and laugh about this or are they going to feel embarrassment, are they going to say we shouldn’t talk about this? They should say, we won’t allow these transgressions to happen out of our respect for the Iraqi people, respect for the Iraqi people’s religion and their morals. That is, If have entered our land as friends to help us out, as they claim. If they have entered our land as enemies, this is exactly what they should do to expose their hypocrisy to the world. The pictures with the article doesn’t collaborate the article. The people in the pictures are averages citizens, one of them is holding a pepsi can, the other a bottle of mirinda (a soft drink), the dancing girls in the pictures work for a folk national dance company. It is an old and known traditional dance company. The article says that Saddam used to forbid the sales of alcohol and cut off the heads of women of lose morals. I say that is a lie. Had he been straight and careful about religion and morals, god wouldn’t have abandoned him. I believe that the Iraqi nation is waiting for an apology from the author of the article and the newspaper itself, that is if they have respect for the journalism profession and assuming their goals are noble. There are some that don’t respect this profession and wrongs it and stains the profession with embarrassment. I wonder where is the senior editor? How does he allow to print such a dirty article? I promise you I won’t buy this newspaper again, I will tell the story to every Iraqi.
[translation by www.ihath.com]
# posted by Faiza Al-Araji @ 11:36 am 
