NEWSLETTER

I have two cousins that live in Iraq. Sara is 15 years old and Dani is 13. They both live in the al-Yarmouk district of Baghdad, which locals have christened “the streets of death” due to the constant attacks and random violence that plagues the area. So they live in the epicenter of the war, basically. What was once a prosperous middle-class area has become a semideserted pile of carcasses. With this in mind, I called them up to see how they were doing.


ice: How has your life changed since the Americans arrived?

Sara: Well every morning I used to be picked up by the school bus, which stops outside our house in the morning. It’s only a 15-minute walk but it isn’t safe. These days I’m not going to school anymore at all.

Why not?

Dani: It’s not safe. Last time I went to school, hardly any of the other students were there. Eventually, less and less people started turning up. Everyone is scared that they will be killed accidentally or held for ransom.

Back before the Americans came, getting around this area was much easier. You could go home with friends, or if your school was close you could walk by yourself. Now everything has to be planned. You can’t just go home with friends or walk around. We only go out if we really need to.

What about you, Sara?

Sara: Before the invasion, I attended Baghdad’s School for Music and Ballet. I had to leave soon after all the sectarian violence started. My family got scared because I was about to be 14 and they thought something might happen to me. A lot of people think dancing is haram. That means unholy and not allowed by God. This was very painful for me because I loved dancing and doing it in your house isn’t the same. I had to start going to normal school.

Dani: These people have taken a lot from us.

Sara: Almost everything.

Who do you blame?

Sara: The Americans. We thought they were going to free us from the militias and all the people who are doing the killing. It’s disgusting to abuse your own people for money and power but now we are used to it. Saddam abused us and now our own people are abusing each other.

Do you miss normal life?

Sara: I miss my friends

Dani: Me too. It’s difficult to see anybody outside school.

Do you think that the amount of people being abducted is exaggerated, and some of the things you hear are just rumors generated by fear?

Sara: No, not at all. Everyone knows someone who has been held ransom by a militia. Kidnappings are commonplace. Sometimes when you are walking on the street or in a car, you will see a car pull up to someone and men will get out and bundle him in. You can’t say or do anything because they will kill you.

A few months ago, a girl at my school was snatched from her father as they went home. She was 13. I didn’t know her and I wasn’t at school when it happened, but the next day everyone was talking about how her father was on the ground, begging and pleading with them to give her back, and they wouldn’t. These armed gunmen shoved her in the car and demanded a ransom of $2,000. That’s a lot of money now.

Do you know if they gave her back?

Sara: Yeah, three days later her father paid the ransom. She was unharmed, but that isn’t always the case. I didn’t see her at school again.


TO BE CONTINUED:
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