Scream quietly...in the Blue.


I remember reading a book some years back. I cannot remember the name of the author though. I did warn you that I am bad with names. But the exact title is well lodged in my mind: "Scream quietly or the neighbors will hear".

The book was about female battering. You know what woman battering is don't you?

It is basically when a man beats, strikes, punches, kicks, pounds...a woman and sometimes severly enough that she ends up in hospital and sometimes severly enough to bring about her death.


It is interesting to note that the verb "to batter" is also used in cooking i.e to make a dough. The French have similar anologies between battering a woman and food. They would say he turned her into a "compote".(compote is cooked fruits). Ditto for Arabic expressions. They would say he broke her bones, they became like "soup"...
Am sure other "cultures" have more analogies of the same sort. I will leave it to you to dig up some expressions that you are familiar with, along the same lines...

Did you notice something here? A common trait in the use of words, in the use of language?

It is as if they allude to render that "thing" liquefied, easily moulded, soft to the palate...
In sum, easily mixed and easily digestible. I will also leave it to you to make further associations on the same theme.

No society is immune from woman battering. I will not dwell on figures now. All societies are guilty of it. East and West, equally guilty. And R.Kipling was wrong when he said that East and West shall never meet. They do meet. They met. They met in Iraq.

They met in Iraq, the land, the earth, the Mother...
They also met and agreed on her daughters bodies - Iraqi Women.

That body which, since the "liberation", has become a public commodity. A public thing. A thing to be veiled, a thing to be controlled, a thing to be ordered about, a thing to be disposed of, a thing to be battered, moulded, shaped into a liquefied, soft, yielding thing. A digestible thing.

Yes, batter, pound, strike, punch, beat, rape, torture, imprison...that "thing" and ultimately dispose of it, annihilate it.

Both "East and West" are bent on the destruction of Iraqi women.
It is as if, plundered, occupied Iraq has become the center point, the "lieu" where these forces can pour out their venom, their deep hatred, their frustrated instincts, their perversities...In sum their collective misogyny.

And those who know me a little by now, know what I mean by East & West. Just in case you are new to this blog. East is metaphorically used for Iran and West for none other but the "greatest democracy on earth", America.


"Scream quietly" is what Salam's kidnappers shouted at her.

I find myself searching for new names all the time. Changing a name in my head a thousand times. I now fear mentioning the neighborhood too. The militias trace cell phone calls, names, neighborhoods, relatives....etc...and am serious.

Salam is a female relative. She lives in a sunni area. A sunni area that is now infiltrated by the militias from Iran. The militias of the Mullahs. A sunni area thought to be a walled fortress. No such thing, alas.

A few days ago she went during broad daylight to her son's school. He is only 11. She wanted to get his exam results. She was ecstatic when the teacher told her that he passed. She said to herself, with all what they are going through, he still managed to pass...
She took the piece of paper. One piece of good news she thought to herself.

As she was leaving the gate of the school, a group of armed men approached her and pushed her at gunpoint into a car. She was kidnapped for 48 hours. That same day, 4 female teachers were shot in the head as they walked out from the gates of the schools...

I was not able to speak to Salam and you will know why later on. But her husband told me and I had lots of difficulty understanding what he was saying. He was crying so hard and I had never seen him cry that way before...I had to make him repeat his sentences several times before I got all the details of her abduction, of her kidnapping.

Salam is a very pretty woman in her 30's and she is veiled. So I guess her "dress mode" was not an issue...but then you never know.

A mother of two. A postgraduate in Arabic literature, an ex-college teacher.
She was laid off her work like so many others. She lives with her husband and ailing sick father. Her husband is unemployed. He too was sacked from his job since he belongs to the wrong sect. They live off 75$ a month. This is the money they get from her father's old age pension.

The kidnappers called themselves a certain X "Jihad" group. No one has heard of them before. The only thing we know and that is according to Salam "they spoke Arabic with a very heavy foreign accent".
They were 5 of them. They tied her hands and feet. And kept on beating her until they broke her jaw and bruised her all over. She shouted "What do you want from me?"

They threatened that if she shouts one more time, they will gang rape her and they kicked her up some more...

They interrogated her for 24 hours. They wanted to know everything and I mean everything.

Where she lives, who pays the rent, who her relatives are (and she did give names under duress), where they live, what their phone numbers are, how much money they had, where did the money come from, who were the people she mingled with, what is her husband's job, her father's, her mother's, her grandparents, her ancestors... And they beat her up some more...

And everytime she screamed, they threatened rape and told her to be quiet. She told them "Remember your own mothers, remember your own sisters...How can you rape me?"

They laughed and said..."And you know how to respond too huh?" And they pounded her some more. "Where did you learn to talk that way?"...And the interrogation continued...
"What did you study, where did you study, why did you study...What else do you know, what other replies will you dare give us...?" And they beat her up some more...

Salam was finally released from the "X " group for a sum of 1'500$. That is all the family had. A bit of savings to help them make it through until "God decides this curse be alleviated"...
Upon her release her husband packed a little suitcase and moved to another neighborhood. Also I must not forget to mention that his son's name is very sunni.And now they fear for his life too.
Salam is now lying in bed. She is too broken and too bruised to move or talk. Forget about taking her to a hospital... Did I say hospital? Ah seems I did. You know what a hospital is? Good for you.

Of course, the first reaction we had was "Did they rape her?" As if this phallic weapon is constantly branded over our heads like a sword about to slit our throats...


Salam is blue all over...Bruised blue, red blue, red coagulated blue, hematomas blue ,blue black...covering her already frail body.
Blue, blue, blue...And deeper shades of blues...Deeper blues in the heart, intense blues reaching the soul...
Blue bodies, blue souls...Sanguinary blues.


Scream quietly while we beat you up. Scream quietly while we insult you. Scream quietly while we order you about. Scream quietly while we trade in you...Scream quietly while we rape you. Scream quietly...move quietly...cry quietly...


Damascus, Amman - Hundreds of young Iraqi women scream quietly everynight after closing time of the seedy bars.
They scream quietly under the weight of the clients, forcing them into positions they would not dare use with their own "respectable" wives...
They scream quietly as they pass on the 10$ to their families to feed them.
They scream quietly when they find out they have contracted STD, they scream quietly when they find out they are pregnant, they scream quietly when they are called "cheap Iraqi whores..."

Iraqi prisons - Thousands of women linger there with no trial. They sit and they scream quietly. They are tortured, raped and are asked to scream quietly. They contracted AIDS, TB, Syphilis, Hepatitis and a thousand other ailments but they are to scream quietly...And when they walk to the gallows, they are to scream and die quietly...


America, this is your New Democracy. Iran, this is your play field. Iraq has become your dumping grounds.
The dumping ground for your greed, promiscuity, illnesses, perversion, hatred, racism, barbarism, but above all your misogyny. Yes YOUR misogyny.

Your misogyny coupled with their misogyny. Your hatred coupled with their hatred. Your sexism coupled with their sexism. Your brutality coupled with their brutality. Your violence coupled with their violence....

No, it is not only a dual occupation for Iraqi women.It is a thousand occupations.
No, it is not only a backlash for Iraqi women...It is a thousand lashes...
It is beyond rape, it is beyond anything that words can describe...It is even beyond death.
It is as if all the hateful shadows, lurking monsters, of "Maleness" are being poured over our heads, into our bodies, right into our souls...into future generations, into the future, into for Ever...

Control, impoverish, kidnap, batter, rape, torture, prostitution, prisons, hanging, death....A series of steps on the one and same continuum of male hatred. That archaic hatred that has erupted along with your occupation.

My God, every time this realization dawns on me, I scream. Scream in the darkness, scream in the solitude, scream at my keyboard, scream quietly...

So go and tell your "anti-war" websites, groups, newspapers...
Tell them that every time they carry Muqtada and his drill boys on their shoulders, in praise of the not so-hidden blood filled hand of Iran...
Next time, when you sit and circulate another one of your potential, probable, possible, "war pimp alerts"...
Next time, when your "respectable" "anti-war" "feminists" sit together and debate the intricacies and "dialects" of Patriarchy and Imperialism...
Next time, when you are pedantically engaged in semantics on the exact terminology of political correctness... Next time.

Next time, remind them.
Remind them of the thousands of widowed Salams, the thousands of displaced Salams, the thousands of impoverished Salams, the thousands of imprisoned, tortured, sick, raped Salams, the thousands of kidnapped, raped, battered Salams, the thousands of young Salams forced to sell their bodies in cheap night clubs, the thousands of old Salams sleeping and begging in the streets, the thousands of orphaned Salams being traded in...
Yes remind them.

And next time you sit and wonder why I detest you so much...Remember that I am sitting here, behind this borrowed keyboard. My only refuge into sanity was endlessly hacked and finally destroyed into silence.
Yes borrowed. Borrowed computer, borrowed money, borrowed roof, borrowed lives, borrowed time...
Remember me sitting here, along with thousands other Salams screaming quietly into the night...

But knowing you, I can already picture that sly gleeful smile of satisfaction on your face...And knowing you, I can already see that indifference that I am so familiar with...
You are probably thinking to yourself -

This is nothing...
It's just "The Other", an "other".
another woman, yet another woman...
It's nothing.
It's just an Iraqi woman bruised,
just another Arab woman's blues.


Painting: Iraqi artist, Thamer Dawood.

Comments

Anonymous said…
first!
G.Gar said…
No words can ever ease what you are going through.It is humilating to be able to do nothing except some words

what could I tell you? where are the 300 milion Rhinoceroes, so called Arabs? watching star academy, talking about the upcoming war between Iran and U.S. And still contemplating whether Iran is friend or an enemy haaa.

Ohhhh Sadam Hussien was a dictator and Iran is muslim country. The rest are watching American crappy movies that is brain washing what is left of their lemon heads or fantacising about American democracy!!!


where are the 1 billon muslims? Praying, and fasting while they lie, pimp, fart and steal haaaaaaaaaa. They might as well smell Khameini's ass for a change.

They blame Iraqis for speaking Arabic and thouroughly defeating and humilating Iran haaaaaaaaa aren't we an Umma why be Arab nationalists? tell that to an Iran or a Pakistan why speak irani or Urdu? haaaaaaaaa

I feel very bad and ashmed that there is nothing I can do except some extremely humble words.

But I want you to remeber that you and your likes are better than all of THEM. No one Leila can ever go through what you and your people are going through. Still you are marching forward and conquering your difficult days. you are paying the price of being good. Why didn't sell out the Palestinians after 1988? whu did defend Syria in 1973? why did you subsdise Jordan? why did you open the door for millions of Egyptians?

As for the honourable Iraqi ladies who had to work in such places, I think they testify very well to how low Arabs are. thiose dirtwho suck their blood, deserve nothing but life of eternal shame.

Moreover, dear Layla you have t oput up with the silly dirt who are harrasing you day and night on the Internet.

People like you Princess can never be defeated.
Anonymous said…
jr coyote,

First on his/her knees, and last to wipe it off his/her chin.

I hope your exgirl friend has gotten over the baaaaad taste you left when you last kissed her. Now go swallow like the bitch you are.

Guess who you little sheep f*cker?
Anonymous said…
Layla, I don't even know what I can say to you here - to all the Salams in Iraq and outside. This is just too painful, thanks to imported 'DEMOCRACY', courtesy of Bush, Blair and all Iraq's neighbours - they, too, have wives, mothers, daughters.....

I believe in God, Layla, but WHERE is He now?

Shame on you, Jr. This is not the kind of article where you're vying to be in first.
Anonymous said…
"I believe in God, Layla, but WHERE is He now?"

--

could it be he doesnt exist?? (the answer ure looking for is yes)
Anonymous said…
chin up layla
Robin said…
.......................
Anonymous said…
Foreign accent as in iranians os americans?your article makes my heart bleed.you're a modern day al-khansaa.
A&Eiraqi said…
Dear Layla
It's the first time I visit this blog, I was told about it by 3eeraqimedic after hse read my post about honor crimes.
It's great to write about women rights.
I feel unable to add anything to what you wrote in this post.
I know that there is a great oppression on women in the whole worlld and especially in our societies.
But, I think we should work to correct it, women are the majority in Iraq and they're what left to build the country so they should move to correct all the wrong odd ideas in the society.

Allah kereem
Unknown said…
Dear sister,

I am sorry to hear of the suffering of your relative...We have all suffered and we will continue to suffer until the occupation is exterminated.

P.S. Your blog is set on "comments to be approved before appearing". As such, why do you allow comments from silly and childish people to appear? Please delete such comments or ban such people as the lives of our people is not a joke except to the sick sadistic scum who exist on this planet (and they are plentiful).
landsker said…
Greetings Layla,
Peace be with you.
No words are sufficient to soothe your heart, this I know.
However, I am old enough to remember when the American military got sent to the floor, with a resounding slap.

In Vietnam, the women also joined the resistance fighters.
Instead of prayers and exhaltations, they picked up weapons and fought back.
Instead of verbal attacks they used cunning tactics, and soon had the americans begging for surrender.

Forgive me if I seem harsh, but communism has no priests or mullahs to maintain the delusion of abrahamic misoginy, no temples to lure the sychophantic congregations into sexist stereotypes, where forever the male is worshipped as creator and master.
Maybe the war will at last free women from the chains of religion.

Maybe, but for now, all that we can do is to wait for the americans to tire of loosing their children and treasure to war.

Croeso.
Layla Anwar said…
Ahlan ya Amre,

You said it all and you said it well...The bit about the 300 million rhinos had me cracked up in laughs...
Shukran.
Layla Anwar said…
Salam Iraqi and thanks for visiting my blog. What you said is very poignant...It is true, Iraqi women are the ones left and many times left behind since the men are being exterminated one by one...I am totally convinced that this occupation has taken back to beyond the stoneage...Not only in terms of wrong understandings but also in the damage it has incurred on us as women and men...and it will be felt for years to come...many many years. I visited your blog by the way and I like the way you write...Keep well. God be with you and ALL Iraqis.
Layla Anwar said…
Little Deer,

At times and it has become more often than not...I share your doubts. It seems that this occupation has caused besides and on top of everything else, an unprecendented spiritual crisis for quite a few...
Bless you.
Layla Anwar said…
Dear Layth,

As usual your words are full of wisdom. You are right. I have comment moderation and I do moderate quite a lot of the comments and do not publish all of them...At the same time, I do not wish to censor too much. But I agree with you, from today , I shall become more stringent...
Salam to you.
Layla Anwar said…
Hello Landsker,

I agree with you to some extent, provided that we both view religion as such as an oppressive system. I do not view religion as oppressive but I do view religious interpretations as such.
In Algeria, women took up arms...
In the 1920's and in 1958 in Iraq, women took up arms and took to the streets...I hate to remind you that during the khomeini "revolution", women took to the streets too....
I am aware of marxist thought...and its philosophy.
But I have also seen the most blatant reactionary sexism in marxist circles, whether they were communist or trotskyst.
Seems the problem is not so much with the ideology as such...maybe the problem lies with men and this is what needs to be addressed...
Back to the study of the downside of patriarchy.
Mind you, some pretty sexist practices also took place in matriarchal societies...Things are not as black and white as we wish them to be.
Regards.
Kniall said…
Thank you Layla. That was inspirational. God have mercy on us all.
Anonymous said…
layla stop deleting my posts!
LostHere said…
A correction
The verb “to batter” in culinary terms means “to coat with batter”… but you are absolutely right when you talk about so many culinary idioms that compare or relate to battered woman. During my many years in the kitchens I have used them, jokingly of course, no big deal, just another tasteless “polish” kind of joke… How could I have been so thoughtless? In fact, I have always been aware of the “machismo” on said jokes, and always aware that they really were not nice, but never for a moment did I thought that I was being just a typical misogynist male… no excuse, and never again.

There is a passion in everything you write that tends to go deep into one’s heart. As I said before, your posts are not “light” reading, they are always thought provoking.

As for the real subject of your post, I am not going to comment anymore than to say, that in my opinion, only a secular, modern, socialist society, with emphasis on individual equality, could possible change such a history of gender violence (Utopia, really). Getting rid of males would also work, I imagine, although as you pointed out, matriarch societies have had a history of same kind of abuse…

Cherryl Wheeler, says on her poignant song:
…If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns

I think that would be a great start, all weapons really, but we would still have old cultures, and they tend to be extremely misogynistic… What’s up with that?
Anonymous said…
There's not a lot I can add, apart from saying my thoughts go with you - which is a totally inadequate response. :-( My overwhelming response is a mixture of anger and sadness - but also a powerlessness to be able to do something about it. :'-(

I don't know that religion is, of necessity, an oppressive thing. It depends upon what use is made of it. In that we probably agree. People, sadly, will tend to use almost any excuse to oppress others and to justify their actions - and in doing so become inhuman - and they frequently (but not always) draw these justifications from religion, though they may equally draw them from other sources, such as politics or culture. But then I speak from the POV of someone following a very obscure path that doesn't go in for dogma but which emphasises personal responsibility and choice. OTOH, if my particular path was mainstream, who knows what someone, in search of certainties and easy answers to justify their actions, would make of it. :-(

Amre El-Abyad said... "aren't we an Umma why be Arab nationalists?"

So we're told - I speak as a non-Muslim. However, it seems that the Umma only applies when it is convenient for it to do so. On other occasions, when it is more convenient for people to justify their actions on the ancient Shia-Sunni divide, the Umma does not exist.
Layla Anwar said…
jr, aka saddam hussein, aka ST Francois of Assissi....
I will stop deleting your posts and others when you and others start commenting something on the subject matter...This is NOT a chat room. I am sure there are many chats rooms on the net where you can go and have a little fun...
Layla Anwar said…
lost here,

My apologies...I am not a very well versed in culinary terms...
But one can say batter the eggs and the flour no?
Of course, who wants to do away with men? They are a wonderful species...sometimes...
And besides, with great chefs like you around, cannot make without them...:-)
Layla Anwar said…
Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your input...well said..I am not very familiar with abreviations..what does POV and OTOH mean? Is that some secret wording? :-)
I agree with you, religions are not oppressive as such...at least they were not intended to be. I do not believe that God is a sadist either...I just wonder sometimes, why HE-SHE-IT is so silent.
But then maybe He-She is not. Maybe It is screaming in Iraq.
Anonymous said…
ok layla.....u got it.....no more worthless posts....every post i make will be be high quality and on topic
LostHere said…
Layla, I really don't know where you and so many other people get that idea that religions are not oppressive (or violent)... In fact, all the scriptures have lots of instructions that creates the conditions for that violence. Yes, they also have very peaceful instructions, but they are not pick and choose, we either accept all of it, or not at all. In my case I reject all of it.

Now, please keep in mind that I make a difference between God and Religion. They are not the same!

I personally reject any thought of religion, do not believe in a creator per se, but I have not problem with the spiritual thought of a "supreme being", or whatever... it's not my thing, but I don't reject it. Religions in the other hand are a social instrument, always man made, and looking at history, it is almost always a dehumanizing instrument. I choose to be individually free, as I believe we are intended to be.

As for man being a wonderful species... imagine how much more wonderful a species would be without weapons or religion... or not. In fact I am at a lost here (no punt intended). I have no idea what makes humanity tick anymore.
Love and peace are such great feelings, why don't we embrace them?
Anonymous said…
will i be allowed make polite requests for new articles?
Anonymous said…
Layla, this article made me saddest of all.

Images of brutality have marked my heart and I have lost a bit of my hope for humanity.

Thank you for sharing this ugly truth with me.

What are we doing to ourselves? Oh my! What other horrors do we have in store for ourselves as Petro-collapse increasingly puts militarized structures into the offensive?

This looks to be the beginning of a new dark age.
Anonymous said…
layla,


as I see it,it is not about nothing and just another that you are writing about,it's about us/our civilisation(s),our actions based on cultural conceptions are false from beginning of history,all (cultural)belief destructive in the end, our 'gods' will annihilate us,there is no hope for human society as it is,

thank you again,

t simen
Zaidan said…
Alright, lets lay it on the line shall we. The reason this is happening to Iraq's women is because Iraq's men (who are not in the resistance and do not speak up) are cowards.

Makhaniith. Pure and simple.

Yes, that is the awful truth.

The new generation of twenty-somethings in Iraq are happy to sell their sisters and mothers for a nice sojourn in Paris, London or the US.

THIS is the new breed of Iraqis. The so-called educated who have been bred on watching TV shows and listening to western music when they are happy to disregard all the socio-economic conditions that gave these infotainments a medium.

Dallas, McDonald's and Levis - the brainwashing of Iraq as well as the rest of the world.

The only true Iraqi men are those who are fighting the militias, fighting iran, fighting the US, fighting the mehdi rabble, fighting the saudi beareded islamists, and so on.

The ones who at the very least can document and speak against what is happening in Iraq.

You wrote of this last Monday, Layla. How many other Iraqi bloggers picked it up? How many commented on it?

Where are they?

It is only through personal tragedy that they will wake up. Let us hope they will not go through the experiences that your relative went through.

Shiqaaq we nifaaq.

Wallah 3ar, 3ar, 3ar. I remember the older generation of Iraqis who marched against the British, marched against the occupation of Palestine.

Who fought in the wars, and bled and died for Iraqi honor.

Don't tell me this and that about Saddam Hussein.

During Saddam Hussein's time all you bastards did not worry when your children walked to school. Or when your wives and daughters used to walk to the market, go out for coffee, do anything they bloody well pleased.

Baghdad Treasure has a very, very, very good post about the status of women in Iraq. He talks about how women were treated prior to the war:

"I am with secularism with religious freedom like the kind of secularism we had before the war where women in Iraq could freely walk the busy streets without a scarf or a male escort, and stay out late at outdoor cafes with their families, sometimes until two or three in the morning."

Thank you BT for saying what needed to be said.

You know, if Iraqis want Islamic extremism let them choke on it.

In the first days of "liberation", rival shia gangs were kidnapping and raping each other's sisters, wives and mothers. An Islamic University researcher uncovered this and had documented proof but chose not to publish it because it made Islam look bad.

Seems Islam is to be found hidden in mens' pants.

3ar, 3ar.

The solution? Support the resistance, help it overthrow the Iraqi government and kick the foreign dogs out of our country. Then the Iraqi traitors who came to sell Iraq will be hunted down to extinction.

Iran will no longer be able to use the Iraqi government to creep its way into every facet of society.

The mehdi cur will lose control of the ministries. The imams and mullahs and sheiyukh will lose control.

And Iraqis can truly begin to rebuild their country, day by day. And see that justice is meted out.

When something is diseased and ravaged with infection, you burn it to sanitize the area.

There is NO other way but resistance.
Anonymous said…
Wallah 3ar, 3ar, 3ar

--


wallah wallah wallah
Anonymous said…
Shiqaaq we nifaaq.

Wallah 3ar, 3ar, 3ar

--

what do these statements mean please? does 3ar mean iraq??
Anonymous said…
Absolutely right, Truth About Iraqis. I am not Iraqi but agree with everything you've said, particularly the bit about being brainwashed by TV shows, etc. It is quite rankling on the ears to hear Iraqi youth trying to imitate the accent of their occupiers, among other things. Shame on them.
Shahid said…
Layla, this post moved me to tears.

What can we in the West do for you? Please, advise us, we will do what you ask.
Anonymous said…
some speculative thoughts, i hope appropriate, and offered in solidarity.

god is truth. evil is dishonesty, living without god, hypocrisy, harm. god cannot stop what humans initiate before hand, but honesty is the resistance, is the noble, and god is with the resistance. We suffer terribly because of the sins of evil, not because god doesn't care, or alone ourselves, we suffer for the fools, like jesus, he was not the only innocent to suffer.
god is with the resistance.

In the UK there are individual tragedies brought on by the wicked state of zionist affairs. And our quality of life is poor, lacking, unpeaceful, slavery, for many. and painful suffering too, but not on the scale of Iraq. Suffering is hard alone, and here our enemy is nigh-on invisible, though in many ways the same origin, same influence, same movers. Injustice, corrupt justice system, corrupted by corrupt power.

The Iran side of things: well its perplexing, i understood that they suffered , children suffered, in wars with flames and gas, supported by America against them in war conducted through Iraq. Perhaps the state as a whole is not your enemy, or the Islamic fundamentalists, perhaps they are not enemies of the people, but the active opportunist hypocrites who exists within. Sympathisers who have bad memories in Iran need to understand that was the history, and not support or be blind to atrocity towards 'enemies'. Likewise, Iraqi's, sunnis might do well to take a lead there. Remember, Iran took a lead in shaking off terrible oppression, saw through Zionist-imposed western ideals, moral corruption and the brainwashing into atheism/materialsm: they can't as a whole be one-dimensional and stupid. The sunni/shia rightful caliph questions are another thing of course....but i am sure the koran can help and has done to legitimise both traditions under god, with the commentaries common to both, and because the lineage of caliph successors is broken, as rulers. In India both coexist peacefully, and you both have too. But bad people in Shia name have to be fought.

I understand that Iran wen to the UN to condemn the last war with Iraq/Iran, As if Saddam made the first move, illegally, and to avert war. It's a fact this motion was disgracefully vetoed by America..who permitted it to to flourish: Britain abstained, like a cur. I think France did too. I don't know why Saddam launched an attack. It is having repercussions now in resistance to occupation.

It appears to me Saddam died heroically. It is not necessarily foolish to seek support from America ( or wasn't in his day, I'm sure he was aware of the Zionist lobby and influences, but their grip on shameful actions in the name of those people is stunning.
I tried hard to understand Saddam without swallowing the West's condemnation, and in doing so found him genuinely charming, and fatherly. Insurrection has to be put down, perhaps the method was a mistake, but how much was the choice in the hands of the army generals. No doubt about it Sadamm was rather selfless and brave, even privately pious without bragging. I saw no problem with the palaces, creates god employment for craftsmen. So who was Saddam, a fool, a heroic and fatherly leader, a good man who made one or two very bad mistakes, a viscous racial elitist? I tend to think rather good, but hard to understand because he didn't pander to popular opinion led by a Zionist world media. we need to know more about reasons and actions he took here in the west to help us in our support for resistance, to help with support for alternatives to the capitalist materialist democratic ideology, behind which lurks the wickedness of Zionist movers.
Anonymous said…
A further thought: if Saddam was a good and able man who made some mistakes, in a long stretch of time, and good for Iraq, then he seems to have been open to some moderation, and learn: if he had continued, then he might have left a very good example for any successor, both by his mistakes and good: but that doesn't appear so likely now, which is a further loss to Iraq.
Anonymous said…
Layla,

I don't have any answers as to why men, in any society, treat women like dogs.

Please let Salam know that I wish for her rapid recovery.

Understand that there are men in this world that do hold a woman's value above their own.

I'm sure that doesn't make you or Salam feel any better being in the situation you're in.

Whether you're a Christian woman, Muslim woman, or Budhist woman there are men that do respect you.

Troubled Texan
Anonymous said…
Layla. I am so sorry.

Not for the first time I am ashamed to be a man. That is what men who batter and rape women do. They make real men feel a certain unnamable shame. Something indescribable really which only decent men could know. It makes it hard to even say 'decent men' for a moment, wondering is it an oxymoron?

Not for the first time I am ashamed to be a "White man" and nor is this the first time of late I am ashamed of my country.

I am deeply, humbly and eternally sorry for Australia's role in all this evil. I cry now for your story and I will cry many more times before these blasted times pass. I have never cried for any casualty of our own, every one is a just death in my books. I only regret that we have come so far unscathed when for our efforts we should at least have lost a few dozen just to remind Australians it really is all about death.

Please pass on to your family, the small comfort it may be that there are people, men even, here in Australia, Britain and America who are aware and who are not just sitting back quietly saying and doing nothing. WE do not have the sort of democracies that the propaganda claims and things have not quite reached the point that enough are ready to stand together and do what must be done. If things continue as they are, inevitably some will start to do the only thing which I think will change things and stop our runaway fascism and I am ready anytime I here the whisper myself.
Anonymous said…
assalam alaykum wr wb
it is first time i am visiting this blog and your writing about "postcard from Iraq" and Salam's tortures are the first ones
May Allah bless you for infoming people about it - i have been to states too many americans are too ignorant of politocs too many of them are too illetirate in politics so they can understand what their governments are doing, Saddam's regime might seem like a childplay when comparing to what America is doing in your country - well in my country as well - we have to admit Iraq is all muslims country since we are all responsible to what is being done there - inshAllah all will get paid in their turn and May Allah give patience to you and other our sisters in Iraq, to sisters who were forced to immigrate and proostitute in Syria.
i am so sorry - truly sorry this is happening there now
hope umma will finally wake up and join to fight all shiyas and other invaders
if you ever have doubt about usefulness of your writing DO NOT
people all around world are missing objective info on Iraq

your sister in faith
Anonymous said…
Dear Layla,

Not all Americans agree with our men and women being in your country. We too cry for peace and harmony. My heart and soul go out to you and your family. I will pray for you, as I pray that the attrocities that your country is commiting against their own will end. God be with you. You are a brave woman, and I have the highest respect for you.
Anonymous said…
I am screaming with you--and as I am in the West, I may do this aloud and only suffer being called insane.

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