Abeer’s rape and murder mirrors the fate of the nation of her birth. Her attackers stalked her, watching her house for a week before launching their offensive. In the minds of many, this is synonymous with preparations for the invasion of Iraq itself, certain world powers continuously targeting Iraq, gathering intelligence (later proven misleading if not fabricated) and finalising plans that violated in totality the sovereignty of the country.
Further, Abeer’s complaints of harassment are synonymous with appeals made by Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion; that it was not affiliated with Al-Qaeda nor did it possess weapons of mass destruction. Iraq appealed to neighbouring countries and the United Nations to bring to a halt the military juggernaut massing on its borders. But just as Abeer’s neighbours proved unable to help in time, so too did the world community in failing Iraq.
Abeer’s life as a whole is testament to the suffering of the Iraqi people. Born the year Iraq invaded Kuwait, Abeer lived out her infancy under the punitive sanctions regimen. She grew up different from other girls in the Arab world: an innocent child, yet punished for wrongs she could not begin to understand. By the time she turned 13, Iraq had been invaded and entire cities and villages were soon under siege. In the great war of liberation allegedly waged to stifle terrorism and liberate the Iraqi people from the stranglehold of tyranny, Abeer paid with her life at the hands of the liberator.
And weep.
Heart
I keep trying to get this but it’s not linking. Anyway, I’m not sure I can bear to read it. I don’t know how you can write this and keep persuing it. I’m very grateful that you are. I just don’t know how… .
There will, I’m sure, be protestations from relatives and friends of these men, about how kind and wonderful they were, even lo, to the meek and weak. Wouldn’t harm a fly, tearjerking stories about birds with broken wings rescued when young. Etc.
How much we have to block just to get through out lives, including the knowledge that the men we know and love are just_like_these_men. Ordinary men.
Yeah, pony, so true, and your comment is a timely response, too, to the comment I just approved in the thread about the Army Sgt. who was just sentenced. Sigh. That’s the thing– under male supremacy, most women are connected to men, it is a matter of their survival, and so they can be devastated by men’s behaviors.
I just clicked on the link and pulled it up– it is SUCH a great article, well worth reading, but it loads really slowly.
Heart
**Wouldn’t harm a fly, tearjerking stories about birds with broken wings rescued when young. Etc.**
More likely, they were torturing small animals. Bush tortured frogs when he was a boy. It is documented fact that most serial killers start out by torturing and abusing small animals. There is a definite link between animal abuse and later abuse of humans.
I still cannot get it. It says “no website is configured at this address”.
I can’t get it either. So I just tried ahram.org and got “Ayman’s Home Page” and a javascript icon appeared in my systray.
It’s posted here too.
Sorry for the troubles with the link!
Heart
I have it.
I am enraged that Canada is supporting this U.S. war in Iraq. We (they, the Conservatives, Canada’s right wing) do so by taking over in Afghanistan, (more murder and plunder under an assumed name) thereby freeing troops and U.S. budget for Irag. Our new prime minister recently raised the budget allocated to the Canadian Afghan force for the next five years. Millions for murder, and at the same time, cuts to healthcare and childcare. But hey, George calls him Steve. Best buds.
Something else that bothers me about this: Green’s photo has been retouched or photo shopped to add or heighten black circles around his eyes. All the better to make him look demented.
Just got this in my inbox today- Robin Morgan on this atrocity:
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/081706.html
I couldn’t decide under which post to comment, so I just picked the most recent on the topic.
Hope you’re back blogging soon, Heart. I’ve never commented before, but I read regularly and I’m missing your brilliance. (Though I just got the new oob issue; hope to read you in there.)