Football becomes last resort for Iraq’s children due to violence

BAGHDAD, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) — Iraqi children have been deprived of almost all the fun due to war and violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, except football game as they love it too much to give it up.

Kids can be seen in many places here in Baghdad playing their national pastime, the only way to make them neglect temporarily their grief over the past years in the war-torn country.

In an ordinary Baghdad sunset, two teams are playing a football match on a small makeshift field just behind the building of the Iraqi foreign ministry, which was devastated severely two months ago by a suicide truck bomb.

"We can’t have our outdoor sports such as swimming and tennis, because of the unstable security situation and lack of proper facilities. Football is our only choice, as we can play it anywhere in our small neighborhood," Maytham Ali, 16, told Xinhua while watching a local match in his community.

Ali lives in Baghdad’s central district of Salhiya where a powerful truck suicide bombing almost destroyed the large building of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs two months ago and claimed 100 lives and left over 1,000 others wounded.

Though there are a few sports facilities elsewhere in the city, they are not for Ali and his neighbors. "Our parents do not allow us to go far from our neighborhood for fear of daily car bombs or roadside bombs."

Ali, now a middle school student, said that he dreamed to play in the country’s national team one day, carrying the number 10 just like Younis Mahmoud does now, an Iraqi soccer player who scored a goal to help Iraq win the Asian Cup in 2007.

However, Amer Kadhem, 15, standing nearby and listening to the conversation between Ali and Xinhua correspondent, recalled the powerful explosion that occurred near Iraq’s ministry of foreign affaires on Aug. 19.

"Ali and I as well as many kids in our neighborhood helped the security members and firemen to drag bodies from under the rubbles and to put out fires here and there," Kadhem said.

Kadhem added that his friends and he did not fear explosions anymore because "we have got used to hearing the frequent noises of blasts and watching the bloody scenes of such tragedies."

Asked about the government’s support in providing sport clubs to them, Suheib Mohammed, 16, resting during the match break, said "no one supports us but when we have a football match in our neighborhood we take about 15 dollars from each local team to buy the necessary equipments and medals for the winning football team."

A dozen audience of local kids were chanting lines of an Iraqi local song: Jeeb al-Kas Jeeba, Jeeb al-Kas Jeeba, meaning to win the medal cup. Even the 4-year-old tiny Hasan Abbas was dancing and cheering among the crowd.

"My parents allow me to come to the playing field every day to watch them play. I wish to be just like them when I grow up," Abbas said in his newly learned words with innocence.

Iraqi children have long been the victims of war and the following violence that affected millions of them. Lots of Iraqi children have been killed and the lucky survivals are found to be suffering from serious stress.

The negative affect of violence on Iraqi children is pervasive and will affect their lives unimaginably and even horribly for years.

Observers believe that there should be a suitable environment available for Iraqi children such as providing athletic clubs withsport equipments to help them to overcome their terrible reality and to ease their sufferings from wars and violence.

But from faces of Ali, Kadhem, kids joyfully matching in the field, or even tiny Abbas, people may find signs of bravery and optimism as their innocent eyes and faces glitter in the golden Baghdad sunset.

Source: Football becomes last resort for Iraq’s children due to violence by Shaalan Jubury, Ghassan Awad and Fu Yiming English_Xinhua

Tags: al-Salihiya, Child Trauma, Children, Features, Fu Yiming, Ghassan Awad, Shaalan Jubury, Soccer, Sports, Wednesday bombing, xinhua reports