Iraqi kids under Saddam (police station)

IRAQ-Nineveh province:
Year: 1997: Summer

Abdullatif is orphan lives with his four brothers, 2 sisters and his mother, he is 12 years old, his 3 of brothers work in the market and he is working too, his youngest brother goes to school, Abdullatif sells cigarettes on the street in the market, he has small bench made of wood that he puts his cigarettes on it and sets behind it to wait anyone buys cigarettes from him, he starts 7:00 am Iraqi local time until sunset time, when it is sunset time he puts his cigarettes in the bag and he goes to vegetable benches to buy cheep vegetables to feed his family.

It is summer 1:00 to 4:00 PM, in this time everyday streets get almost nobody because of the heat of Iraqi Summer, Abdullatif puts his bench inside one of stores near by his bench and uses this shortage in selling to go to video games store to watch other kids who play video game, he has no enough money to play and the money he makes it is enough for his family's food so he keeps just watching instead of playing.

One day, he left his bench to watch video games, while he is watching and talking to kids policemen came and surrounded that store, policemen took all kids also Abdullatif to police station,

Policemen brought kids including Abdullatif into police station and started to yell to them and cursing,
"All you are criminals and you have 2 choices, first staying here inside police station and get tortured or if you wash and clean the police station you will be released" Abdullatif said that what they told us after they brought us into police station,
Abdullatif and other kids started to wash and clean the whole police station until sunset then they were released,
Abdullatif went home without money, without vegetable and tired, he told his mother what happened to him, because of his mother didn't see Abdullatif lying to her in his life so she believed about what happened to Abdullatif, " don't go to the video game store again and I will try to save some money from your gain and your brothers' gains to buy you video games, so you and your brothers can play inside home" his mother said to Abdullatif,,,,,
Abdullatif became happy and promised his mother to not go to video game store anymore,
Next day Abdullatif went to work but at noon police was looking for kids to take them again and collect kids from video games stores but one police saw Abdullatif setting behind bench and remembered his face that he was yesterday at police station so he came and took Abdullatif again to the police station, Abdullatif told police that he works and his family needs food and money but that policeman didn't care about what he is saying, Abdullatif cried but merciless that policeman didn't care,
However Adbullatif is cleaning up and washing police station again for free and for freedom, while he is working he saw small hole on the wall,
He decided to runaway from that hole on the wall and he did it but one police was guarding that hole in outside, Abdullatif was caught, then, police put him in room and started to beat him up and cut his hair in bad way as punishment for him, it is sunset time Abdullatif was released again but in this time he was tortured by policemen.

Time by time policemen come to take specially Abdullatif to make him work for free and poor Abdullatif obeys them because he doesn't want to get tortured by police,


Abdullatif got bored of doing this for free, one day he bought small knife, he put that small knife in his pocket then came back to his bench to work after while police came to take him to wash police station, that merciless slapped Abdullatif , Abdullatif became very angry he pulled his knife and stabbed it to that merciless police's leg hardly twice, other policemen started to beat up Abdullatif and they arrested him.

That merciless police lost his leg and Abdullatif went to jail for 3 years.

at house or out of house , merciless terrorists kill our kids

Before months:
Some where in Nineveh province:

Sajed is 11 years old; he lives with his family in small and old house, he doesn't go to school anymore because their region became fighting field many times between Iraqi forces and terrorists, his mother always tries keep him busy inside home and urges him to play inside home with his brothers and sisters, but Sajed gets bored staying at home he always gets way to get out of house and play with his friends at neighborhood, because of this action he gets punished by his parents.

One day,,,, shootings and explosions started near by their neighborhood, Sajed's mother shouted " Sajed , Sajed, Sajed" but Sajed wasn't at home; he was playing at neighborhood, his mother sat down and started to cry and say my Sajed is gone repeatedly, while she is crying hard knocking on the door, Sajed says " mom, mom open the door it is me Sajed" his mother ran toward door and opened and she saw Sajed with some kids from neighborhood, Sajed invited some kids to home to protect them from shootings and explosions because fighting is close to their house, Sajed and his friends are scared, paled and breathing quickly, his mother brought water for them quickly, when fighting stopped Sajed's friends left to their home and their families were worried about them.

Sajed's mother works hard to keep Sajed inside home to avoid the danger of terrorists everyday, but Sajed always finds way to get out of house and play in the neighborhood.
One day, morning, neighborhood is silent and everything is normal, Sajed's father used this silence to go to market and took Sajed's brothers to buy some toys, while Sajed still in bed sleeping his mother asked his father to buy him new playthings that may keep him inside home,
Mother, Sajed's sisters and Sajed stayed in home,
Father bought toys and playthings for Sajed and in his way to home, suddenly, he heard hard explosion he hurried up toward home and he found their house collapsed, Sajed, Sajed's sisters and Sajed's mother are dead.

PLEASE STOP DOING THIS

The pictures above show the one of Shia'a's ritual on Ashoura day, in that day Shia'as make a big ceremony in Iraq and other countries, this ceremony contains slapping their selves, lashing with metal chains and other non metal and make their selves to bleed from head, this happens once every year, but when we look at pictures we see the pain and torture that kids have, actually parents force and encourage their kids to do this, they don't know the harm and damage that kids have from this action, some of these pictures are not from Iraq but I saw with my own eyes how Iraqi kids get pain of doing this, some of these pictures are for other Shia'as in other countries but I feel pain with that wherever it happens, I ask Shia'a parents to stop forcing kids to do that, I got in problem by family when I tried to stop one kid was lashing himself by metal chains.
Kids loose blood and get beaten.

Please stop torturing our kids.

we all cried

Iraq, Nineveh:
2001

Every Friday is holiday in Iraq, Fridays I go to cinema and I take some kids from my neighborhood to cinema to watch movies, kids love action movies, they also wait every Friday to I take them to cinema, their mothers dress them good and I go pick up them from their houses, each kid's mother gives me her kid's ticket money, I pay for bus from my own pocket, 4-8 kids usually come with me to cinema, kids age are 10-13 years old, I usually take them to watch adventure movies and some times to the action, every time I take them to action movie they talk about week in neighborhood.
Its Wednesday, I was walking then I saw cinema shows action movie on Friday, I told kids that I am going to take them to action movie.
It is Friday I took my little brother and five kids from neighborhood, when we arrived, I saw they changed action movie to sad love story movie and I love that movie, kids are unaware about this change, I thought well, do I take kids home or we enter to watch ?
I also can not leave this movie I love it, I decided to enter with kids to watch this movie, I told kids this love story movies so be quiet and don't make noise, (I saw kids how they get effected from action movies, some times they yell, jump, worry about the hero, laugh and sometimes the get sad)
However we sat in front seats, I am sitting and kids are sitting beside me, they turned off the lights then they operated the movie, it is about end of the movie I noticed kids were very quiet while I ma watching movie, I thought they got bored and slept some how, the end of movie was very sad, I cried little bit, I thought I am the one only who cried in the cinema but when movie is ended and they turned lights on I saw all kids are crying, I didn't think kids were going to cry from that movie.
When we left the cinema kids started to play and laugh.

Now, after 2005, the terrorists exploded many of the cinemas and closed up others, the cinema owners get threats in case if they open it.

BEING GIRL CHILD

Old Arabic tribes in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) were looking to the woman as shame, if some man gets girl child he wouldn't be able to show himself to the tribe, people would look at him as meaning of shame in the tribe,
Arabs were thinking the woman is the reason to get girl child and man has no relation with that, The Arabs before Islam were burying new born girl child, after woman gets new girl child his father takes her and goes to burry her to clean his honor, this also called ( shame laundry).
There is very common tale from that time in Mecca,
One Arabic man was burying his 6 years old daughter, when he was digging to make hole to bury his 6 year old daughter, the 6 years old daughter was cleaning her father's beard from dirt (soil), (children are innocent every time), Then, he buried her, but when he got another girl child, he took to bury her too, during burying: he remembered his buried daughter and how she was smiling and cleaning his beard, he started to cry and took his new daughter back to home, her mother was crying but when she saw her she became happy. (Her sister's act saved her life).
Islam prevented this action forever but Islam decreased woman's role and value in community, so woman's situation remained bad, after time people became looking to woman as shame but without burying new born girl children, you won't see this in Iraq's old history before Arabs come to Iraq; Iraq didn't have this Discrimination against woman, after Arabs came to Iraq this Discrimination came with Arabs to Iraq,
This is common in Middle East, this was explanation to make readers to understand the coming story about family and I wanted to give readers small information about the Discrimination against women. If we compare the Discrimination against woman in Iraq and other Arab countries we are going to find Iraq is better than other Arab countries


Iraq: Nineveh.
1989
About family in Iraq.

Family has four girls, mother and father, the father is very angry because he has no boy child, he does not play with his daughters, he screams on his daughters, actually he didn't touch any one of his daughters, he always spits on his daughters face and on his wife's face, the father was very nice man but he became angry and mad after he got first girl child.
The mother is pregnant, father is waiting with hope his new boy child but no one knows the coming baby's gender, The daughters are complaining from their father's action to their mother, Mother says "everything will be good when I bring you brother, you father will be nice again after he sees boy".
Four girls hope and pray to be boy the new coming child, they wish to see their father's face smiles and laughs to them.
Finally, new child came but she is girl too, when mother knew this she started to cry and father became angrier he left home to see his friend to talk about already planned about the new wife.
He brought new wife to home, his wife chosen silence about new wife because the community will give the right to the man to get boy but she is not satisfied about her husband's new marriage.
The new wife is pregnant and everybody's eye on new coming child but the second wife begot girl child too,
The father became very mad and he decided to marry third one, then, he did it.
After one year of his third marriage, the third wife is pregnant and father is waiting new child boy, the first wife is pregnant too, the third wife begot girl too, the father lost his last hope about boy, his first wife is pregnant but he doesn't care any more about it,
One day he was walking on the street, his neighbor told him that his first wife begot new boy child, he ran to home and he found his son from his first wife.
The father took good lesson from his life and he started to treat his huge family nicely.




DAY-BY-DAY IRAQIS LEARNED TO NOT MAKE DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN BOY AND GIRL.
THERE IS DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN WOMAN AND MAN IN IRAQI COMMUNTY BUT TODAY FATHERS TREAT THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS IN SAME WAY, AND LOVE THEM IN SAME VALUE, BUT STILL SOME FAMILIES HAS DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN SON AND DAUGHTER, IT IS ONLY 10% OF IRAQIS.

Taharah / Circumucision

Taharah means circumcision in Arabic and also some people say Sunnet for Taharah, circumcision is an act of cutting off the prepuce or foreskin of males, this came from Prophet Mohammed by Allah (God) as other heavenly religion from same God for Jews, Christians and Islam so it is same order from God was told by God's prophets for people.
The Jews are as a circumcised people.
Rejection of the sins of the flesh; Spiritual purification and acceptance of the Christian faith, The act of circumcising; surgical removal of the foreskin of males the act of circumcising performed on males eight days after birth as a Jewish and Muslim religious rite. The feast day celebrating the circumcision of Jesus; celebrated on January 1st.
As you see three religions have one more same point,
The circumcision in Islam for male only, I slam has no female circumcision at all.

Taharah in Iraq, as other Islam majority countries Iraq has big care for male circumcision,
In some areas and before 10 years in Iraq; Iraqi kids get circumcised when they are 4-12 years old but now people get their kids circumcised after 2 weeks after birth specially who lives in big cities.
All kids get afrsid from circumcision and from circumciser; I am sure every man and boy has circumcision (Taharah) story in Iraq, so I am going to tell you circumcision story for twin boys Jawdat and Ali.


Jawdat and Ali are brothers and they are twins, they live with their family. Jawdat and Ali have big family.
Because of Jawdat and Ali are twins they were born weak and their parents decided to postpone their circumcision when they get 8 years old.
It is spring Jawdat and Ali are 8 years old, parents prepared everything for circumcision without twin's knowledge (if twins know about circumcision they will run away), however twins were kept busy without knowledge.
Hassan is twins' cousin, Hassan heard about circumcising today and he went to tell twins,
"Jawdat, Ali, I heard today is cut day for you" Hassan said.
When twins heard this, they ran away, when circumciser came waited for hour the family couldn't find the twins then circumciser left.
Twins are 9 years old and it is spring, this year the twins are aware and very scared, they ran away too.
10 years old, they ran away too.
11 years old, they ran away too.
Twins are 12 years old; the family made trap to catch twins, first parents sent twins to work ( to come from work tired and they won't go any where after work, they will come directly to home).
Jawdat and Ali came from work at 4:00 PM very tired,
When Jawdat and Ali saw the circumciser at home, they tried to make excuses but their father said it is just one time and you are getting older day by day, lets do it now, twins accepted this time and they got circumcised.

me and mute kid

One day I was teaching kids a new game to play in neighborhood, every time I teach them new game they get bored after playing that game and they want more, you know kids' situation, one of kids brought me his broken car toy to fix it, I couldn't fix it because I hadn't spare parts, he became sad, I didn't know what to do and I didn't have money to buy them candies, I said ok kids let me tell you funny jokes, kid became happy while I am telling them jokes all of them laugh, I noticed one of them doesn't listen and doesn't laugh, he just sits with kids, I talked to him and I asked his name he didn't answer to me, I see him first time in neighborhood, I asked one of kids what's wrong with him, Ali told me his family came new and he can't talk and can't hear, I tried funny things with my hands, I saw he smiled to me, his name is Samir but calling him with name doesn't work because he doesn’t hear he is 7 years old, however, I was with kids from around 3:00 PM until sunset after sunset all kids went home, I went to visit on of my friends after one hour I returned to home, I entered home I was trying to sit down I heard hard knockings on door, my mother said this knock is means something bad happened, and she told me if I made any problems before I come home, I told her no I didn't do any thing, however I went to see who is knocking, I saw Ali with woman, the woman is crying, Ali told me this is Samir's mother, I told her what's wrong?
She said Samir is lost…… did you see him? … Samir doesn’t know this neighborhood.
I said he was with kids and they went home didn't he come home?
She said no ….. I have no body to look for him now his father at work,
I told her don't worry you go home and I will gather some friends to look for him,
She said I have to come with you; I brought 2 guys from our neighborhood, me, Ali and Samir's mother we all went to look for in the neighborhood and other neighborhoods.
After 3 hours of looking for him we gathered in the other neighborhood without finding him.
I asked Samir's mother to go home and take Ali with her we will continue to look for him.
After they went home, I told 2 of my friends to knock doors on by one and ask them about Samir, then we started to ask every house about him, some people haven't seen him some others saw him walking that way or he was standing and watching other kids.
We walked according people's direction to us, finally we found our selves back in our neighborhood.
One of my friends told me why we don't go to mosque (if any kid or old guy or animal is lost, people go to mosque and then the Imam announces in the mosque's loud speaker about lost thing , this is very common in north of Iraq)
We ran to the nearest mosque but mosque was locked then we went to Imam's home, Imam refused because it was night and late however we convinced him, we together went mosque again to use loud speaker, after Imam announced about Samir and how he is look like, and he said if any body has him please bring him to mosque people left their home to find out what is going on, after half our nothing happened, Imam said ok come back tomorrow I am very busy now, however we convinced him again to wait just little more and repeat again.
In the second time one guy brought Samir to the mosque, Samir was little scared but when saw me he knew me and I made some funny hand things he smiled, Imam told us ok take him to his mother, then we kissed Imam's hand and the guy's hand who brought Samir, (kissing men's hand here in Iraq means respect specially if you kiss old men or women hand , It means I am very thankful, grateful and means you are very appreciated for his job that he or she has done to you, we also kiss our father's hand and specially our mother's hand to show obey and respect to parents here in Iraq, some times kissing somebody's hand means asking for frogiveness).

We took Samir to home, I knocked their door no one was at home then I took Samir to my home, I saw my mother and Samir's mother are awake waiting for us, after Samir's mother took Samir home, I went to bed tired.