Gorilla’s Guides

War… a nightmare or reality for Iraq Children

Iraq-Nightmare (Feature)
War… a nightmare or reality for Iraq Children
By Maha Muhammed

Baghdad, March 22, (VOI) - On an Iraqi morning Khaled, 11 years old, went, as he used to do everyday, to the nearby school in central Baghdad. What was unusual this time was by the end of the first lesson blasts rattled the school snatching the children’s innocence from their faces.

It was horrible. Windows shields smashed hitting the children’s soft bodies. Khaled, like others, hide himself under desks that could not withstand the falling ceiling and its fan. Exercise books, pencils, blackboard and the pupils’ dreams were all buried under the falling ceiling. All went to the sky except for Khaled and his colleague who lost an arm.

The tragedy is still preoccupies this little Iraqi child, though the incident occurred sometime ago. He is not the only to suffer from similar experiences, as scores of kids his age share with him the same experience. Many are still paying, along with their families, the endless war bill.

Deadly attacks with mortar rounds that target schools have become repeated occurrences in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, bringing the war into a new chapter.

Only ten days ago a mortar shell hit a crowd of children coming out of their school in al-Karada area, central Baghdad, killing and wounding a number of them.

Nada, a 12 year-old-female, stayed up the whole night crying from serious burns in the attack.

“I was terrified… I cried for my mum… I thought I might not be able to see her again,” Nada told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The child’s eyes were filled with tears and she turned her face towards her mother who was sitting by her bed.

Ameera al-Janabi, Nada’s mother, said “when I heard the sound of the explosion I hurried along with my neighbors, especially after we heard about casualties among the school children.”

Al-Janabi, who recollected the events with tears, added “the scene was too horrible, blood mixed with books that scattered on the road just outside the school.” The war, she persisted, will never stop as we live its tragedies everyday till the moment.

Schools in areas termed by media men as hot spots, witness a day-time nightmare that has forced them to close classrooms most of the year.

A female teacher, who feared for her name to be published and asked for the codename NY instead, told VOI “Al-Amil neighborhood, western Baghdad, where we live is one of the hot spots in Baghdad. Most days we can not come to school as nobody can tell what the future moments will unveil.”

When teachers attended classes, she pointed out, they expected the worse to happen inside the classrooms.

“All families fear the most for their children so they refrain from sending them to classes, particularly after so many tragic events took place. The lesson was like psychological warfare we all engaged in against an unknown enemy,” the teacher said.

War has not only claimed the lives of children but also shaped new kinds of hazardous games.

Saadiyah Muhammed, a female teacher from a school in Baghdad’s outskirts, said “pupils have changed to be more aggressive in their conduct and relations with their colleagues.”

A new game has started to spread in the school where she worked, said Muhammed, and added “in the school grounds masked pupils gathered around their friend, whose hands were tied, and began the rites of a fake slaying with a piece of wood.”

The teacher, who laughed when she mentioned that to VOI, noted “many things have changed in these boys’ dictionary of games.”

While such tragic incidents will leave marks on the child for his upcoming years and the need for psychological rehabilitation programs, Iraq lacks the basic surveys and teams to handle these disorders.

In this respect Dr. Udai Khaled, a psychologist at Kadhemiyah teaching hospital in Baghdad, said “the modern history of Iraq is rich in wars and this has had a bad impact on the personality of the Iraqi citizen, including the children.”

He added, “unfortunately we, in Iraq, lack surveys and studies that can handle psychological complexes and syndromes.”

Meanwhile, schools do not pay much attention to the work of the sociologist available on the premises of all schools in Baghdad.

Samar Naji, a school sociologist, told VOI “virtually I am not able to do my job at school as people there pay no attention to the significance of my mission. Even teachers at school view it as a minor job annexed to school.”

Most pupils now see violence or (war) as endless. It is a continued nightmare and a bitter reality.

Source: Iraq-Nightmare (Feature) : Aswat al Iraq