June 1, 2008

I woke up today with another sinking feeling. I thought I've gotten used to them - sinking feelings, by now...but no.

I dreamt of being in some sort of refuge center that takes in abandoned children, Iraqi children. It looked more like some rehabilitation center than anything else.

The whole dream was tinged with a dirty beige color, reminding me of those missionary orphanages, or these medieval looking hospitals.

I saw myself in this place, and two Iraqis kids were brought in, one girl and one boy. Our "mission" was to bathe them, give them a clean bed to sleep, and feed them...

So I and this "coworker" whoever it was, bathed the two kids. And I could not help but notice that their private parts looked like those of an adult.

In the dream, I said to myself, how can that be ? These are kids not older than 10!

So I made the remark to my "coworker" and she said "pay no attention".

I replied "how can I pay no attention, their genitals are over-developed for their age. Something is wrong here. And this girl's private parts look like that of a woman who has given birth"

So I asked the little girl, I said to her, "what happened, you can tell, I promise I will not let anyone hurt you." And she replied in a soft, sleepy voice "Please let me sleep, I have not slept in ages..."

I woke up from this dream and I understood that the time has come for me to write about the sexually abused, raped, trafficked, sold children of Iraq and dedicate that post to them.

I've been deliberately putting it off for some reason or another. Maybe because this subject affects me deeply and I can already see the emotional, psychological, moral, sexual and spiritual damage reverberating for generations to come, contaminating and scarring all future ones... Such things are never forgotten -- on a collective, conscious or unconscious level...they will be passed on from generation to generation...

I guess my own unconscious having been patient enough with my willful procrastination on the subject, gave me that dream. Its way of telling me "now, you expose it for what it is." So I am obliging with my own limited means.

And now has come the time to share a piece of news I've been putting off for some time. I know I have, on several occasions, alluded to Iraqi children being sold and trafficked into sexual slavery. I have also mentioned about those who are sexually abused in orphanages, streets and the rest...

So this piece of news was from an email I received on the 15th of March 08, from M. And this is what it said :

" Swedish press reveal serious facts on the markets for the sale of children in Iraq. Investigative journalism, published on page 6 of the broadest and largest newspaper - Swedish Agency for World News Express - which has been translated into more than 12 languages throughout the globe in the last 24 hours, which has caused an outcry in Sweden...

The disguised Swedish press (Tiris Christenson), and her colleague (Thorbjorn Anderson) went in an old Brazilian Volkswagen car and followed closely the sale of children in a large market at the centre of Baghdad with pictures and sound .. Market for the sale of infants and adolescents .. Slave market in the land of the cradle of civilisation which made the readers and viewers cry the minute the story was published and shown on Swedish television!

It's an Iraqi girl named (Zahra) age of 4, sold in the centre of Baghdad for $ 500! Then the journalist shows the children that are sold at the copper market, and women forced to prostitution. The actual figures are not shown in the daily number of killings, the journalist continued describing the lives of the Iraqis under the daily killing, hunger, torture, kidnapping, slaughter and total anarchy, all under the cover of Democracy.

This story will make thunders around the world and hopefully will awake some conscience...

The Swedish government has announced that they will grant the abused Iraqi children and women an asylum to live in Sweden and they will be allowed to have their families with them...

The amazing thing is the reporter talks abut a place where children are sold and shows it on a map inside the Green Zone of Iraq and no one knows to whom and where the children sold being taken to."


I will tell you where they are taken to. They are taken as sexual slaves to neighboring countries like Kuwait and Iran. They are taken as merchandise and sold to "civilized Westerners", including Americans and Brits. They are prisoners of pedophile and porn rings...

And NO, the Swedish government and the rest of the "civilized Western" governments and societies will not do anything despite their so-called outcry. In fact Sweden and the rest have closed their doors in the face of Iraqi asylum seekers. So spare us your crocodile tears...

So what can be done locally when "the budget allocated to projects that help street children and orphans is decreasing day in and day out," notes an Iraqi Red Crescent employee refusing to give his name.
" Worse still, almost NO NGO is dedicating itself to this group of kids who are subject to trafficking and sexual abuses in the streets."

So the trauma of occupation, of a stolen childhood, of violence, of losing one's parents, one's home, of dreaming of artificial limbs, of poverty, of empty stomachs, of child labour, of untreated diseases because of lack, of phosphorus and depleted uranium deformities...are not enough for you. Of course there has to be more, and more, and more...


Who is going to save them from the inferno of adult sexual perversion ?

Who will stop these children from having the genitals of a grown up ?

Who will exorcise them from the devil's claws ?

Who will stop their daily nightmares ?

Who will let them sleep in peace ?

WHO ?


P.S: Afghanistan is following in our footsteps. All thanks to You -- "civilized world."


Painting: Iraqi artist, Falah Al-Saeidi