During my work as a country director of CIVIC (the only door-to-door civilians war casualties survey), I was given a passport of a Jordanian citizen who was killed during the war, he was a fighter in the Arab militias in the south.
Today, my father came from Baghdad to Amman and brought some documents about my work there that I need to use in my Masters thesis, and I found that passport with the documents.
The guy was born in 1978, and his name is Khalid Ahmad AbuDyyh. I called the phone directory service and took his family’s phone number, and called them.
Assalamo Alaykom,
A female voice answered… Alaykom Assalam
My name is Raed Jarrar, can I speak to Mr. Ahmad
He’s not here
mmm… can I speak to any other man?
Well.. sorry, I am alone here with my mother, how can I help you?
mmm… I wanted to ask about… mmm…
God, at that moment I wasn’t sure whether they knew Khalid is dead or not
mmm… about Khalid…
what about him?
Where is he?
In heaven.
Ok, at least they know he is dead.
Well,,, I used to live in Iraq, and I have his passport with me
Oh god! Really?
Yes, can I come to your house?
Sure sure, I’ll let dad call you when he comes back.
The father called me in the evening, and I went to meet him. We had some tea while he was telling me the story
Today is the fist birthday of Khalid’s son, Dirar. Khalid went to fight and die in Iraq, he left us in the 17th of March, just some days before the war started. He left his wife pregnant and didn’t tell anyone were he was going.
I noticed this picture on the wall, for the dead father, and another small picture for the small son that didn’t have the chance to meet his father.
He asked us to call his son Dirar, because his friend Dirar was killed by Israelis some years ago during a battle.
Khalid didn’t want Iraqis to see what we, Palestinians, went through.
The father started to cry.
I am happy that Khalid died without seeing the pictures of the naked Iraqi prisoners.
I shake hands with the father, kissed the grandson, and left.
Why do hundreds like khalid decide to sacrifice their lives?
I mean… I was really thinking of that for hours…
Why in the hell would I leave my work, my wife, my unborn son, my father, my mother, brothers, sisters… and go to fight and die?
Khalid wanted to go and die in Iraq, not because he is a looser, not because he wants to have a 72 virgins (I don’t know where did this virgins story come from), and not because he wanted to achieve personal benefits,,,
Khalid like other hundreds before him , and thousands after him , wanted to say NO, he wanted to change his/our world, and it is our fault that we didn’t give him other means to express this protest.
It is the responsibility of me – as a leftist secular Muslim- and of my other cousins in the international secular tribe to give the right-winged narrow minded fellows civilized means to express their anger and objection… it is our responsibility to teach the neoconservatives how to think and act, to tell the radical suicide bombers to stop exploding themselves in Iraq and Palestine killing women and children, and to tell the neoconservatives in the white house to stop bombing countries and humiliating people.
AlJazeera met some of the famous naked prisoners today, Haidar and Hashem. I really wanted everyone living in the other side of the wall (i.e. the west) to see the anger in their eyes. I really wanted everyone to hear them speaking about the systematic way of torture and humiliation, and to compare that to what has been happening the Israeli prisons in the last 50 years.
Today, my father came from Baghdad to Amman and brought some documents about my work there that I need to use in my Masters thesis, and I found that passport with the documents.
The guy was born in 1978, and his name is Khalid Ahmad AbuDyyh. I called the phone directory service and took his family’s phone number, and called them.
Assalamo Alaykom,
A female voice answered… Alaykom Assalam
My name is Raed Jarrar, can I speak to Mr. Ahmad
He’s not here
mmm… can I speak to any other man?
Well.. sorry, I am alone here with my mother, how can I help you?
mmm… I wanted to ask about… mmm…
God, at that moment I wasn’t sure whether they knew Khalid is dead or not
mmm… about Khalid…
what about him?
Where is he?
In heaven.
Ok, at least they know he is dead.
Well,,, I used to live in Iraq, and I have his passport with me
Oh god! Really?
Yes, can I come to your house?
Sure sure, I’ll let dad call you when he comes back.
The father called me in the evening, and I went to meet him. We had some tea while he was telling me the story
Today is the fist birthday of Khalid’s son, Dirar. Khalid went to fight and die in Iraq, he left us in the 17th of March, just some days before the war started. He left his wife pregnant and didn’t tell anyone were he was going.
I noticed this picture on the wall, for the dead father, and another small picture for the small son that didn’t have the chance to meet his father.
He asked us to call his son Dirar, because his friend Dirar was killed by Israelis some years ago during a battle.
Khalid didn’t want Iraqis to see what we, Palestinians, went through.
The father started to cry.
I am happy that Khalid died without seeing the pictures of the naked Iraqi prisoners.
I shake hands with the father, kissed the grandson, and left.
Why do hundreds like khalid decide to sacrifice their lives?
I mean… I was really thinking of that for hours…
Why in the hell would I leave my work, my wife, my unborn son, my father, my mother, brothers, sisters… and go to fight and die?
Khalid wanted to go and die in Iraq, not because he is a looser, not because he wants to have a 72 virgins (I don’t know where did this virgins story come from), and not because he wanted to achieve personal benefits,,,
Khalid like other hundreds before him , and thousands after him , wanted to say NO, he wanted to change his/our world, and it is our fault that we didn’t give him other means to express this protest.
It is the responsibility of me – as a leftist secular Muslim- and of my other cousins in the international secular tribe to give the right-winged narrow minded fellows civilized means to express their anger and objection… it is our responsibility to teach the neoconservatives how to think and act, to tell the radical suicide bombers to stop exploding themselves in Iraq and Palestine killing women and children, and to tell the neoconservatives in the white house to stop bombing countries and humiliating people.
AlJazeera met some of the famous naked prisoners today, Haidar and Hashem. I really wanted everyone living in the other side of the wall (i.e. the west) to see the anger in their eyes. I really wanted everyone to hear them speaking about the systematic way of torture and humiliation, and to compare that to what has been happening the Israeli prisons in the last 50 years.
