| THE HANDSTAND | NOVEMBER-JANUARY2010 |
NO VOICE
ByLayla Anwar
November 15, 2009
No Voice.
And why should ye not fight in the
cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated
(and oppressed)?- Men, women, and children, whose cry is:
"Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people
are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will
protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help! (the
Koran. Chapter 4 The Women/ An-Nisa: Verse 75)
I feel terribly distressed...actually, I've been crying
uncontrollably...and the tears don't seem to want to stop...
Today has been particularly hard on me. They must provide
some kind of support for people who deal with
traumatizing material on a daily basis...traumatic lives,
traumatic pictures, traumatic stories, wrought with pain,
immense suffering, silence, indifference, deep sadness
and an anger that coils around itself like a snake about
to explode, implode...
Assailed from all sides, whichever way I turn my head, I
see only destruction and pain, endless pain...endless
grief, endless misery...and the silence is sharper and
deadlier than all the weapons, knives, and daggers of
this world.
Why do I have the feeling that am alone witnessing all of
this, where are the others? why is their voice so mute,
why have they gone deaf and blind ? What are they doing
in their corner, observing from afar ?
This is not a film, this is not an action film, not a
video game, this is our lives...or what is left of them.
Why are they no tens of articles a day on Iraq's
suffering - on its children, its prisoners, its women,
its men, its walls...why are they no tens of articles
daily on the continuous rape of Iraq, on the stealing of
its water, its oil, its land by Iran. Why aren't they
tens of articles daily on the abominable state of a
country in total shambles...
How come they are no pictures of your city, send pictures,
show the world what has become of your city, show the
world what has become of your schools, hospitals, streets,
buildings, homes...show the world what has become of your
lives, of your health, of your neighborhood, your friends,
your family...tell your story...tell your story...show
your wounds, cry your anger, write...expose, share...your
silence is maddening, your absence is frightening...you
have left a vacuum for your torturers, and their paid
whores to fill it in with garbage and sewage water like
the garbage and putrid water that surrounds your homes
and your lives...
Shamelessly sitting and observing...and am particularly
referring to the Iraqi middle class youth, who are
supposedly educated. Just now, another video emerged of a
60 year old man raped by two British soldiers in Basra,
adding itself to the innumerable stories of rape, torture
and sodomy that took and are still taking place in your
country...and you sit and observe.
Neda Soltan, the young woman killed by the Iranian
militias in Tehran, her boyfriend shared the story with
the BBC, they are going to make a film about her. A
scholarship was put out in her name at Oxford University,
and posters were carried by Iranians making her the
symbol of Revolt and Protest.
And you Iraqis, supposedly educated Iraqis, over 1
million of us have been murdered and you sit jerking off,
immersed in shallowness and pettiness, mesmerized by the
culture of McDonalds, Coca Cola, MTV and video clips...you
have got no fucking shame at all.
And for the rest who have some conscience left, where are
your Iraqi voices ? What are you doing, what are you
doing instead ? Are you just going to let it go like this,
that easily ?
SPEAK UP, For God's sake SPEAK UP.