Residents of Baghdad are systematically being pushed out of the city. Some families are waking up to find a Klashnikov bullet and a letter in an envelope with the words "Leave this area or another." The perpetrators of these threats are Sadr's followers. The Mahdi army. This is public knowledge, but no one dares say it aloud. In the last month we had two different families staying with them in our house, after they had to leave their neighborhoods due to death threats and attacks. Not only the Sunnis, Shiites are Arabs, Kurds-most of the middle class areas are being targeted by militias.
Other areas are being overrun by armed Islamists. Americans have absolutely no control in these areas. Or maybe you just do not want to control them, because when there is a clash between Sadr's militia and another militia in a residential area they surround the area and observe what happens.
Since early July, the men in our area have been patrolling the streets. Some patrol the terraces and others sit quietly next to the barricades "home" we have placed on main roads that go to our area. I really can not be trusted in any way the Americans or the government. You can only hope that your family and friends remain alive-not safe, not secure-just alive. This is good enough.
for me was in June marked the first month that I dared not leave the house without a hijab, or headscarf. Normally not seen the hijab, but it is not possible to drive around Baghdad without a hijab. It is not at all a good idea. (Take note that when I say "driving" really mean "sit in the back seat, "I have not driven for a long time). walk bareheaded in the car or on the streets also puts family members at risk, as well as you. You risk hearing something not want to hear and then the father or brother or cousin can not just sit by and let it pass. For a long time do not drive. If you are a woman you risk being attacked.
Miro
my old dresses, jeans and T-shirts and colorful skirts-and it is as if studying a wardrobe from another country, another life. There was a time, a couple of years, you could, more or less, dress as you like when you were not going to a public place. If you went to a house relatives or friends could wear trousers and a shirt, or jeans, something that no current view. We do not do this because there is always the risk that the car is stopped and reviewed by one or another militia.
no laws that say we have to wear the hijab (yet), but there are men in black robes and turbans, the extremists and fanatics who were liberated by the occupation, and, at some point, you get tired of challenging them. Do not want to see you. I feel as if the black or white scarf I pull over my head any way make me invisible to a certain extent, it is easier to blend with the masses shrouded in black. If you are a woman, do not want to draw attention, do not want Iraqi police attention, not the want of militant dressed in black, do not want the American soldier. Do not want to be noticed or seen.
I have nothing against the hijab, while the use is a choice, of course. Many of my friends and relatives wear the hijab. Many of them began to use after the war. It started as a way to avoid problems and undue attention, and now simply because there is no point carrying it off. What is happening to the country?
I realized what had become common until mid-July when M., a childhood friend, came to say goodbye before leaving the country. Entered the home, complaining of the heat and the roads, her brother following behind, very close. It was not until the end of the visit when the peculiarity of the situation struck me. She was preparing to leave before sunset, and took the beige headscarf folded neatly beside her. As I told one of his neighbors had been shot, opened the handkerchief with a flourish, set him on the head like a pro, and lit it with a pin under the chin with the precision of an experienced user of hijab. All this without a mirror, as if he had done hundreds of times before ... I would be fine, except that M. Christian.
If M. can wear one without complaining, I can
This last month I said goodbye to more people than I can count. Some of the 'goodbyes' were hurried and furtive-the sort you say at night to the neighbor who has received a death threat and is leaving at dawn, quietly. Several
"goodbyes' were emotional and deeply suffered, the relatives and friends who can not live any longer in a country that is crumbling stitching.
Many of the 'goodbyes' were said stoically-almost casually-with a fake smile carved on the face and the words, "See you soon" ... Just to get out the door and the weight derrumbarte want to separate you from other loved more.
During times like these I remember a speech Bush made in 2003. One of the great things he mentioned was the return of jubilant 'exiled' Iraqis to their country after the fall of Saddam. I like to see some figures on Iraqis and outside the country currently are occupying ... Not to mention internally displaced Iraqis abandoning their homes and cities.
Sometimes I even wonder if you ever come to know exactly how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis left the country this bleak summer. I wonder how many of them come back. Where do they go? What will their lives? Is it time to follow them? Is it time to wash their hands of the country and try to find a stable life somewhere else in another?
- posted by river @ 12:38 AM
