Iraqi women: Prostituting ourselves to feed our children
The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children — for as little as $8 a day.
“People shouldn’t criticize women, or talk badly about them,” says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. “They all say we have lost our way, but they never ask why we had to take this path.”
A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her. “I don’t have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother,” she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself.
Anger and frustration rise in her voice as she speaks.
“No matter what else I may be, no matter how off the path I may be, I am a mother!”
I can't imagine what my choices would be, if put in this same situation, but I know God has another answer. . .
this article post by ThinkGirl.net
Think Girl is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing and empowering women through the web and community programs.
This is just one example how women seem to be forced into thinking, that God made them beautiful for a reason. . .they just have the wrong idea. . .or think they have no other choices.
It saddens me.
Reflections falling to shards Casting curses. "I’m marred!
Fairest of all, in broken pieces, and all . . . Faceless now, on vanity’s floor A broken looking glass, throws back, much less than more . . .
Reflections falling to shards Casting curses. "I’m scarred!"
Refractions uprose to ruin! Smile streaks of tormenting slivers, stabbed slewing "For seven years, no such luck!" "You try living a whole life standing out. All rucked up!"
Reflections falling to shards Casting curses. You’re jarred!
Lipstick kisses on mirrors in red and trails of the mask, on many sheets of a bed A no name smudged on paper napkins, they floored Self contemplations can alter a boor, so, "What is a whore?"
Reflections falling to shards Casting curses. I’m tarred!
Feathers of wiles, only last for a while Pick up the pieces and reflect, musing in the likeness of flesh Further semblance of God in your wounds Your facade away, to endue!
Reflections falling to shards Casting curses. You warred!
Very interesting poem and prelude. The fact is when our children need us we as parents will do whatever it takes to stop their pain and hunger. I do judge lest I be judged.
This is a beautiful if rather sad write. It could be turned into a song. A "Johnny Cash" type of song. Heartbreak, self defeat and a simple lack of knowing how to rise above it.
The Sad thing is the fact that is is happening in Iraq. It is happening in our country too.
Let us all pray:
God Bless,
Lew
Slip sliding through this life
the warmonger created
full well is your knowledge
how you hated
not knowing how my life
will end
praying to God an Angel
to send
crying out for my savior
to mend
this broken life the
warmonger created
all because you
HATED!
Look, my mommy lying on
the floor
but it's YOU warmonger
that is the WHORE!!!
EXELLENT write Kimmy, to stir the soul of those of us who still have a conscience!
The title of your poem creates a powerful image. Shards, mirrors, broken lives without hope, no place to turn, no one to turn to, a baseless society split into ruins...human destruction.
Both the article and your poem are so very, very sad, Kimmy. And you've proven that War truly is Hell, for man, woman, and child, and it always has been.
Reviewed by chris stienstra (Reader)
Reviewed on September 5, 2007
This is such a powerful work. A mother's love is probably the strongest energy in the world. I do not believe that there is any end to the degree of sacrifice a mother will go to save and protect her children and family. Men may go off to fight these wars, but, women are the one's who make the superhuman sacrifieces. Kimmy, thank you from my heart for posting this work.
My very best regards,
Chris
Reviewed by Flying Fox Ted L Glines (Reader)
Reviewed on September 5, 2007
Kimmers, this one is simply outstanding. The copy from ThinkGirl points out a multi-cultural wrongness which should strike a nerve among any thinking people, but they turn away and allow this to go on. With our pens, we wage constant war against this apathy, this ignorance. As I was absorbing your poem, I kept seeing mirror-shards on a canvas, each shard framing a piece of these shattered lives, with your poem interwoven (red on black) as background.
So, so powerful, Kimmy. Like a blade across woman's face. This begs so many questions... what of a heavily patriarchal society - where are the husbands and brothers to protect? The strong family structures? The morality that forbids women to be women?? Hypocrisy both without their own systems and within... all caused by the curse of war. Thinking also of the great waves of immorality to hit USSR when the soviet systems crumbled, it seems that with both increased "wealth" and increased and enforced poverty, the women are the ones who pay the price for the loss of all controls. You have painted this picture in the searing colours of a blackened humanity. Bless you and thank you, Kate xx
I'll tell you where the real shame lies: with the arrogant, incompetent administration who started this war and placed women in the position you describe.
Real faces, hidden behind veiled masks of shame. Invisible, camouflaged to blend in with the rest of veiled society. A painful piece to read, but this needs to be shared. Excellent, Kimmy.
Robin Ouzman Hislop's poetry is certainly in dialogue with some of the key architects of the 'poetics of indeterminacy' – both the Modernist strands represented by the likes of Beckett and Stein, and the postmodernist strands represented, initially,
This collection of poetry addresses the nature of time, reflections on the natural world, the difficulty of loss,
contemporary social issues and gratitude for life.
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Fortunately for them they have their mothers...
Art Sun...
Fee
Ron
The Sad thing is the fact that is is happening in Iraq. It is happening in our country too.
Let us all pray:
God Bless,
Lew
Georg
"All is fair in love and war"
Has rocked me again to the core!
Slip sliding through this life
the warmonger created
full well is your knowledge
how you hated
not knowing how my life
will end
praying to God an Angel
to send
crying out for my savior
to mend
this broken life the
warmonger created
all because you
HATED!
Look, my mommy lying on
the floor
but it's YOU warmonger
that is the WHORE!!!
EXELLENT write Kimmy, to stir the soul of those of us who still have a conscience!
God Bless, God Speed
~Spirit Warrior
My very best regards,
Chris
Ted
Thank you,
Dan
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Walt
(((HUGS))) and love, Karla.