Iraq: We do not want tears, we want solidarity by Farida Akhter

For me, it is very difficult to watch the TV with the war
scenes, and listen to the details of the attacks. In the newspapers I read about
the people, the women and children in particular. All the faces I see look
familiar, I can hear their pain. I can hear pain of the little child, who is
lying on the hospital bed. I feel that I know the child. I feel as if I have
already met him or her very recently. I can not forget the faces of the people I
have seen in Baghdad, during my visit in the first week of March. I have seen
the fear about the possible war, now the war is already on.

I had the
opportunity to be part of the International Women's Solidarity Iraq comprising
of women from different countries in the world. They were Samira Khoury
(Palestine), Iqbal Doughan, (Lebanon), Farida Akhter (Bangladesh), Pregs
Govender (South Africa), Lillimore Erikson (Sweden), Martha Mundey (Britain),
Nelia Sancho (Philippines), Sura Ghassan, Iraq and Corinne Kumar (India). We
have visited Baghdad during 5 to 9 March, 2003 to oppose the possible attack on
Iraq, to listen to the testimonies of the Iraqi women who have already been
suffering from the war of 1991 and to express solidarity with Iraqi people and
particularly the Iraqi women. The International Women's day, i.e. March 8 was
celebrated as a day of International solidarity. General Federation of Iraqi
Women hosted the visit with very sincere hospitality and care for the
International team. They told us, we should try to stop the war.

On March
8, women gathered together in Talai Square in Haifa Street in circles of peace
against the war. We all have chanted slogans against the war. The women of
different ages, even old women in Burkhas were very loud in chanting slogans.
The others were in Iraqi style skirts with scarfs. A very young girl, 12 years
old, came forward and started a speech in front of the crowd of several thousand
people. There was no microphone, but she spoke in a very strong voice. She was
speaking in Arabic, so I could not understand what she was saying. But I could
read the language of her face, her hands and her expressions. she sounded very
bold and powerful. I got a brief translation from one woman that the girl was
actually speaking against the war. She also declared that if there were war,
they would fight back. It was also very interesting to see that while everybody
is busy in chanting slogans, forming circles of peace, few women were drawing
pictures on pieces of white papers. The Iraqi women seemed very artistic. They
drew pictures on many occasions not as a piece of art, but as an expression of
what they felt at that particular moment. I carried a banner "Bangladeshi
Peoples' Solidarity with Iraq". As I was holding the banner, many women came to
me and said, "Marhaba, Marhaba", some said, "thank you". I felt sad but
empowered. I saw that people believe in solidarity so much as if it can stop the
war. In a way, they are right. The peoples' opposition against the war is now an
issue that US-UK have to handle. Although, the US-UK are showing their arrogance
to its extreme extent. They are establishing the fact that they do not care
about humanity.

From the Talai Square, we were requested to visit the
house of Fariel who lives in the older part of Baghdad. Her house was small, but
had very nicely decorated drawing room, with carpets, sofa and even hanging
lamps. Fariel is in her mid-fifties. She lost 21 members of her family including
her parents, brothers, sisters, husband and sons. Fariel gave an account of the
Gulf war in 1991. Now she is living in this house with her daughter, who is now
working as an engineer. Fariel could not forget anything about the Gulf war. She
said, we are not yet able to get over the pains of the Gulf war, now another war
threat is there. We do not want any more pains, any more deaths. Manal Younis
Al-Alousi, President of the General Federation of Iraqi Women was there with us.
There were few other women accompanying us in Fariel's house. Fariel served us
with sarbat. They are under severe economic hardship. Despite this, she tried
her best to show hospitality to the international guests. Maha explained how she
has suffered from breast-cancer after the war. But she said, I am working to
earn some income to maintain the family. My hands are still ok. Eqbal Alaowi
described the death of her brother and his wife. But the son is alive. He was
only 1 year old when his parents died. But the memory of his mother is so much
in his mind that he follows women on the street wearing hijab. But after seeing
their faces, he realises that those women are not his mother. Then he comes
back. Eqbal said, he is now about 12 years old and a very brilliant student, but
I cannot do anything about his 'strange' behaviour to try to find his mother
despite the fact he knows he is an orphan. Eqbal was in tears while she
explained about her nephew. We heard many stories of women. It was very
difficult to control ourselves. We were in tears, too. We were getting an
English translation to their stories described in Arabic. But we could feel the
pain as they were speaking. Those words are still ringing in my ears. It sounds
even harder, when I see the bombs blasting in the TV screen showing BBC world
service.

Next day in a meeting with the General Federation of Iraqi
Women, we met Ezhar. She wanted to tell us the story of the death of her son
Allawi. He died at the age of 11 years, suffering from leukaemia. Ezhar did
everything she could to save the life of her son. She sold most of her furniture
and household items, because he needed blood transfusion. All these efforts
could not save his life. Allawi died. Ezhar was crying when she was describing
the death of her children. As we joined her with tears, she looked at us, and
said, "we do not want your tears, we want your solidarity". Ezhar's voice
changed suddenly in strong protest. She said, "due to the depleted uranium so
many children are suffering from blood cancer. And due to the economic embargo,
we cannot even get treatment. There are no medicine. I have sold so many things
but I could not buy medicine. I could not save the life of my son. I could not
even give him a medicine, which could relieve his pains. I cannot forgive those
who have done this to us. Please help us in getting to the International court.
I want to file a petition as "Allawi's mother". I do not want my own name,
because I want to represent all other mothers who have lost their children.
Please, if you want to help us in any way, please let us go to the international
court against such injustice.

We visited the children's hospital. We saw
children, who were supposed to be playing were lying in bed with much pain. Some
of them were in such bad condition that even though we greeted them, they could
not even smile. Those who were feeling a bit better, got up and sat down. They
responded to our greetings with lovely smile. A boy of six years, even wanted to
be photographed with his toys. The parents were in every bed with their
children. Mothers were holding their babies in their lap. The fathers were
running around holding the prescriptions of doctors, but medicine was not
available. Dr. Rana was in tears when she described that as a doctor she felt
helpless because they could not even do anything to help relieve the pain of
these suffering children. Due to the embargo, the medicine supply was very
uncertain. Even simple medicine like paracetamol was not always available. The
children suffering from leukaemia needed morphine injection when they were in
severe pain. But such medicines were not available. They asked the parents to
get from outside. There were very few lucky ones who got it from outside shops.
Many of them could not even afford to buy. Dr. Rana said that everyday they had
to see the deaths of children in the hospital. She was happy on that day,
because they got some medicine. The day before, there was no medicine. According
to her, the hospital in Baghdad is in much better condition. This is referral
hospital. But those outside Baghdad, specially the ones in Basra are worse. Our
team even could see the death of a child as soon as the team entered the
children's ward. The scream of the mother shocked everybody. Every mother and
father knew that once they are diagnosed with cancer, there was very little
chance of surviving. Yet they tried their best for treatment.

Although,
we were there to show solidarity with Iraqi people against the threat of
possible war, we found that the Iraqi people were already under a situation of
war. The continuation of the imposed embargo on Iraq since the adoption of the
Security Council Resolution 661 in 1990 was still going on. So Iraqi people do
not get medicine, food and any other basic needs. The embargo was not only
economic but included cultural and educational items. The Britain and US imposed
no fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since August 1992 without
authorisation from the Security Council. According to General Federation of
Iraqi Women, there were continuous air strikes on the densely populated areas.
The total number of air raids between December 17, 1998 and May 10, 2000
amounted to 23907 raids.

The destructive war and embargo led to the
deterioration of health, nutritional and environmental conditions.
Infrastructures such as water supply stations, power stations and sewage
stations were destroyed. This led to the spread of diseases. The use of depleted
uranium in the bombs has caused serious and has become major of deaths of
children and pregnant women.

Economic embargo is itself a war. UN has not
been kind to the Iraqi people. Iraqi people were made to suffer without any
reason. 'It is to satisfy the US and UK that UN is working', the Iraqi women
complained to us.

We stayed in Hotel Al-Rashid at the courtesy of General
Federation of Iraqi women. At this hotel, we met many journalists from different
countries and some young people from Thailand, and also Europe who came to
Baghdad to form the Human Shield. "We are ready to die along with Iraqi people
when there will be bombing by the US. The US should know that they are not only
killing Iraqi people, they are killing many other people from other countries."
The spirit of the young people coming for forming the human shield was really
very encouraging.

Now, the Iraqi people are hearing the sirens of war
every night, which they did not want. They are not able to sleep. The war
mongers are taking pride in declaring that they are able to bomb heavily and
aggressively moving towards Baghdad. They are taking credit that they are able
to destroy the buildings one after the other. Then they are announcing that they
will carry out "humanitarian" services along with those European countries that
have opposed military actions against Iraq. We could not stop the war; we are
now seeing the destruction of humanity. It is a shame; it is disgraceful. US and
UK gave a damn to the UN and to the 'NO to War' slogans raised around the world.
They are doing what they wanted to do. They are attacking. Indeed this is not a
war, rather a genocide of a helpless nation to defend themselves. It is only
attack and aggression with overwhelming military power, delivering death and
destruction and creating environmental disaster.

But history is changing,
because people of the world are uniting against war. This is our
hope.