An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

How many of you out there quenched our thirst ? How many of you out there cared enough about that dry mouth...seeking... I am thirsty... I am thirsty ... I am thirsty...I drink you up Sewage water... Sewage water and my words fall in puddles putrid waters made of your stench... My belly touches the earth while I bow down tasting you, while I quench my thirst sewage water putrid water made of you... I smell you in my mouth I gargle you in the late evening I vomit you in the morning And the following day I bow down my belly touching the earth sipping, sipping you sipping your taste the taste of sewage... PS: Thank you David for making the picture alive...

21st March 2011. El-Iraqiya means the Iraqi She. The female, the woman, the mother, the grandmother, the aunt, the daughter, the sister, the friend, the wife, the partner... 21st of March is a good date to write about Her, about She. It happens to be the first day of Spring and Mother's day in the Arab world, in Iraq. And all women are mothers in the making...and not just biologically so. The latter would be a very limited, reductionist, simplistic usage of the term Motherhood. And the she that I am, can only talk from my perspective, from my studies, from my observations, from my experience... The Iraqi women I have known, the Iraqi women who raised me, the Iraqi women who nurtured me, the Iraqi women I have met in my lifetime...this is to them. Excluded are the female syphilitic sores and discharges of the Occupation. It might come across as an Eulogy, and a well deserved one in my opinion. In my eyes, El-Iraqiya is very special. The countless Iraqi women I have met ...

Eight years ago...like a today, like a yesterday, like a yesteryear, like years ago... must have been the same date, more or less, maybe another full moon, maybe another first day of Spring... Were we to be reborn on that Equinox of our lives ? We just died in a long winter... a cold long winter...and the seasons passed and we are still hermits in a world gone silent. Frozen in lies and endless stories still recounted in our names and after our deaths... You see, there is no point anymore remembering - year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4, year ...year 8, year 10, year 20... There is no point remembering...because when it was happening, when the fireworks of Freedom were grilling us alive, and the sound of the rooster mingled with the call for the morning prayers, from Minarets resounding, with Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar -- while fire poured from the skies - you were silent...you were silent while talking, you were silent while arguing, you were silent while debating, you were silen...

Is our blood so cheap ? Did not the same sperm and ovum that made you, made us ? Is the color of blood not red ? Are the veins, arteries, limbs, heads, noses, eyes, ears, legs, arms, not the same ? Is that not our common denominator, is that not our common Destiny ? I will tell you something today that will shock you. I will tell you something from the children of the maiden slave that will rock you. I will tell you we are more sacred than all of you. We are the pioneers, we are at the forefront, we are the first, and we will be the last. No, this is no arrogance, this is Truth. For what we have witnessed, what we have seen, what we have endured...is not counted in words Words mean nothing. You need to rip my heart open and see but you can't do that. You will never be able to do that. Because the Heart is not just an organ and you don't have it in you.

This video is a recent one, March 2011. This video is a 17 minutes sample of your Democracy at work in the Iraq al Jadeed, in the new Iraq. This video shows you the daily life for Baghdadis, through the eyes of a few. I have no strength to write more words, I leave you to watch the fruits of your labor, of your indifference, your apathy and your deafening silence. Video : Journeyman Pictures. A Nation of Tears - Iraq / 7th March 2011.

Sometime ago, an ex boyfriend - that's why he became an ex, in other words history -called me a simpleton and an idiot. He said I understand nothing. So maybe I understand nothing, maybe you understand better...so please explain it to me. What is this democracy of yours, am really very curious. No honestly, am not pulling your leg or anything...am just wondering...What does it mean ? Because I still don't get it. Is it purple fingers dipped in ink or red fingers of protests ? Is it Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib? Is it Bush, Blair or Obama ? Is it Iraq, Afghanistan or drones in Pakistan...or maybe it's the price of oil going up and down ? Really, am serious, do you care to explain it to me ? Who the fuck do you think you are fooling with your democracy ? Me, an Iraqi ?! No darlings, no one fools an Iraqi...your Democracy we tasted it...in exile. Your Democracy, we tore it apart in pieces, and saw the rags it is made of...Your democracy we hear it daily coming as sc...

Today is International Women's Day. I don't believe in it. I've become skeptical, a cynic when it comes to these big titles...the Iraqi occupation has done a great job on me. For 8 years we've been hearing about this famous day, and the gender situation in Iraq is getting worse and worse. I've covered that topic a great length in previous posts on this blog and the Uncensored one and will not go into it again... I mean you know the whole story - right ? We're basically much worse off on ALL levels since we've been liberated by American Democracy and Freedom. I don't trust these International day slogans anymore, nor the women and men behind them. A question of giving oneself a good conscience for the day and having one's name published in some newspaper as the Woman of the Year...kind of bullshit. So I want to do it differently this year. All talk about empowering women, I want to address men instead. OK I promise you will not get insults, I...