A Family in Baghdad

TUSEDAY, 2ND AUGUST, 2005
Good evening…
The hard days are past, the days of the ordeal, and the arrest of my son in one of Baghdad's prisons.
By God, my pain wasn't for him alone, but was, and still is, for all the miserable Iraqi mothers who lost their sons since the days of until now…nothing has changed…the same old story, as they say in the parable.
I remembered a relative of mine, in the times of Saddam Hussein, during the Iraq-Iran war, when they used to throw out all those with an Iranian nationality.
The family had Iranian origins, their son has just graduated from the Engineering collage, and his name was Amer, his age about 23 years. He went into the Army for the usual reserve service, and then they discovered that he was a member of the Al-Da'awa Party, (which exists now in Iraq, headed by the Prime minister, Ibraheem Al-Ja'afari).
At that time I used to live outside Iraq, with my husband and boys, I didn't witness all of Saddam's injustice, but I heard the stories from my mother, (May GOD bless her soul), and from my sisters, brothers, relatives and friends who remained there during the Iran war. And when I went back to Iraq in 1991, the Saddam Regime was starting to become weak, so people started talking in public, some times criticizing, and calling names on other times….or tell jokes to make fun of him, everywhere, in public ….
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My mother, (May GOD bless her soul), said that this woman, our relative, after her son was arrested and taken to the Mukha'abarat, (the intelligence office), (that was almost around 1980), she went round to everyone asking for help, and influence, but no one could help her, not because they were selfish, but because they feared the Regime and its tyranny, and the charge was very harsh, so, nobody would implicate himself to lend a good hand, or else he would be thrown into the Mukha'abarat cells, along with whoever he came to defend. She used to carry the Quran in her hand, moving from one Mukha'abarat office to the next…without getting a positive result.
Then, after sometime I can't seem to recall, whether months or weeks, they sent her a letter stating that they executed her son, and she should come to collect his body. They forbid her from announcing a funeral or receiving people's condolences…..
My mother said that she collected him, finding that his beard was long, with evidence of torture clear on his body…
Then his brother, a doctor, disappeared from one of Baghdad's hospitals during the working hours, and was never found till now….
The women collected whoever was left of her daughters and sons, left the castle she was living in, and ran away to Syria to work and support her children, for she was a widow. She hadn't come back to Iraq yet, she is still living in a European country, perhaps she still sees the ghosts of her victim children hovering around her there…
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I remembered the story of that lady while my son was in custody… I shed no tears, but my whole being was in a state of freezing, shrinking…. How many cases like her are there in Iraq?
Why did some of the Iraqis approve of the war, and supported it?
Didn't they do this to lift the injustice from the people, stopping the process of breaking the hearts of mothers and fathers on their children?
Didn't they do this to build a new country basking in security and peace, where we can go out with our children without fearing they would disappear because someone would arrest them and throw them in dark cells… or that they would be tortured; have their nails pulled out, their teeth and bones broken, to force them to confess to crimes they never committed?
But after my son was arrested, I discovered that they re-employed the same former criminals from the days of Saddam Hussein, to interrogate people…
They beat, humiliate, and torture every suspect.
Then, according to luck, they might release him with the payment of a ransom, or he might disappear, and go down the drain…
Then his mother would carry his picture, and move around to look for him in all Iraqi lockups and prisons, old and new…
His family has no right to know where he is…
They have no right to engage a lawyer to defend him…
What was changed, in the new Iraq, from the old one?
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I always wondered in my ordeal, and after that: shall I go to Iraq one day, to have my revenge on those who hurt my son, humiliated and imprisoned him?
Will my relative come back to get revenge from those who executed her boys?
Is that the solution for human's problems? Revenge, and more innocent's blood shed?
Who dedicated this barbaric mentality to rule us today?
Those who waged a war on terrorism, or those who waged a war on Iraq?
Or this,…or that…?
All these are petty, cheap, deluding stories, no good to people, and wouldn't save them from injustice, or darkness….but rather push them to fall in a bottomless pit….
And that is the way of the world today….sliding little by little to the depth of a dark well, without end….
Who shall stop that madness? Are there any sane people left in this world who would stand up and say: Enough!
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The problem of the world today is thus….
There are some powerful, influential people, who are vicious and spiteful, existing in a central point….they move their fingers around, interfering in every small or big matter, here and there…
There are some local leaderships, in the world's small countries, belonging to that central point; who yield, fear, and implement the policies of the evil faction…
And the decision is always in the hands of those corrupt, evil leaderships, here and there…
And there are some poor miserable people, overpowered, here and there,
And there are the educated, good will and peace loving, here and there, but no body listens to them…
Money, power, and decisions are in the hands of the
evil, corrupt strong…
This is a summary of the way of life on earth now, without mentioning names or countries….
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Things do not go on indefinitely….it must change to a state more beautiful and pure, worthy of our humanity….
How?
And when?
These are the difficult questions…
And that is the responsibility of all of us, to think and work together to create the change…
This is not the responsablity of one individual, for the times of prophets and miracles are over…
But we still carry inside of us the same principals of good will loving, justice, and peace…
We should all work together to achieve them as facts on earth…
By GOD, life became hateful, not worthy of living, as long as it has injustice, and silence….
So many people are wondering: What have you done when Saddam Hussein used to oppress people?
Very well, it is the same question now: What should we do to stop this torrential flood of evils and injustices that is sweeping the whole world?
Should we hide behind silence, foolishness, and negativity once more?
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Translated by May/Baghdad.