by Diari Abdullah
[Note: Abdullah is a young person who submitted the
following article to Pana for Peace, a newspaper put out by CPT Iraq and the
Pana Center to give the youth of Kirkuk, Iraq a voice.]
I am studying in elementary school, class six, and
will be passing through to class one secondary. However, my mother still tries to feed me, leaving no way
for me to choose what I like to eat. She feeds me big pieces of food. I have not yet swallowed one when she gets another ready for
me to eat.
This makes me laugh,
but I am embarrassed to do so. I
know she would say immediately, “When you eat, do not chat or laugh. It is a sin.”
I enjoy watching cartoons, while I am
eating. My mother warns, “A
piece of food will get lodged in your throat. You do not realize how much you have taken and how much you
have not taken. You will make
yourself dirty; you will spill the water, etc., etc.”
I do not like my mother to act like that and want her to
know that I am grown up and can feed myself.
She does not let me wash myself either. She says, “You don’t know how to
wash.” She comes in straight away,
brings in a tough, local, handmade washing utensil, attacks me with it, and
reddens every part of my body. When
she cleans up my private parts, I am bashful, laugh, and say I am tickled.
This is how she treats me when I am sleeping,
when I am going to school, when we visit others and when I am playing, etc.
I
am asking you in the name of God, is this a way of living?
(This article is chosen from “Pana for Peace,”
a publication of youth voice in Kirkuk, Iraq.)
