Children
Pick Their Christmas Toys
By Dahr Jamail and
Ali Al-Fadhily
28 December, 2006
Inter
Press Service
FALLUJAH, Dec 25 (IPS) - Ahmed Ghazi has little reason
to stock Christmas toys at his shop in Fallujah. He knows what children
want these days.
"It is best for us to
import toys such as guns and tanks because they are most saleable in
Iraq to little boys," Ghazi told IPS. "Children try to imitate
what they see out of their windows."
And there are particular
imports for girls, too, he said. "Girls prefer crying dolls to
others that dance or play music and songs."
As children in the United
States and around the world celebrate Christmas, and prepare to celebrate
the New Year, children in Iraq occupy a quite different world, with
toys to match.
Social researcher Nuha Khalil
from the Iraqi Institute for Childhood Development in Baghdad told IPS
that young girls are now expressing their repressed sadness often by
playing the role of a mother who takes care of her small daughter.
"Looking around, they
only see gatherings of mourning ladies who lost their beloved ones,"
said Khalil. "Our job of comforting these little girls and remedying
the damage within them is next to impossible."
Hundreds of thousands of
children have faced trauma of some sort. And for others, the lack of
a normal life is trauma enough.
Just a lack of entertainment
is developing into a serious problem. There are only 10 cinemas in Baghdad,
and two dilapidated public parks. These are no longer safe for children.
Children do not go out much
to play, and they are not sure of home any more. The United Nations
estimates that more than 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country every
month. The number of Iraqis living in other Arab countries is now more
than 1.8 million. There are in addition more than 1.6 million internally
displaced people within Iraq.
The group Refugees International
says that the increasing number of people fleeing Iraq means that this
refugee crisis might soon overtake that in Darfur. And children suffer
most from leaving, and they suffer most where they go.
"Homeless children are
inclined to be rough, and isolated from their new neighbourhood and
new school colleagues," Hayam al-Ukaili, a primary school headmistress
in Fallujah told IPS. "They do not mix in with their new atmosphere
as they should. It is as if they feel it is imposed upon them, and they
simply reject it."
Teachers and social workers
say children have begun to nurse a strong hatred of the United States.
No more is the United States the image of a good life.
"Children have lost
hope in the United States and the Iraqi government after the situation
has only worsened every day," Abdul Wahid Nathum, researcher for
an Iraqi NGO which assists children told IPS in Baghdad (he did not
want the organisation to be named).
"Their understanding
of the ongoing events is incredible," he said. "It is probably
because the elder members of the family keep talking politics and watching
news. Talking to a 12-year-old child, one would be surprised by the
huge amount of news inside his head, which is not right."
"Children are the most
affected by the tragic events," Dr. Khalil al-Kubaissi, a psychotherapist
in Fallujah told IPS. "Their fragile personalities cannot face
the loss of a parent or the family house along with all the horror that
surrounds them. The result is catastrophic, and Iraqi children are in
serious danger of lapsing into loneliness or violence."
The difficulties of children
have become particularly noticeable this year. "The only things
they have on their minds are guns, bullets, death and a fear of the
U.S. occupation," Maruan Abdullah, spokesman for the Association
of Psychologists of Iraq told reporters at the launch of a study in
February this year.
The report warned that "children
in Iraq are seriously suffering psychologically with all the insecurity,
especially with the fear of kidnapping and explosions."
The API surveyed more than
1,000 children throughout Iraq over a four-month period and found that
"92 percent of the children examined were found to have learning
impediments, largely attributable to the current climate of fear and
insecurity."
With nearly half of Iraq's
population under 18 years of age, the devastating impact of the violent
and chaotic occupation is that much greater. Three wars since 1980,
a refugee crisis of staggering proportions, loss of family members,
suicide attacks, car bombs and the constant threat of home raids by
occupation soldiers or death squads have meant that young Iraqis are
shattered physically and mentally.
As early as April 2003, the
United Nations Children's Fund had estimated that half a million Iraqi
children had been traumatized by the U.S.-led invasion. The situation
has degenerated drastically since then.
A report issued by Iraq's
Ministry of Education earlier this year found that 64 children had been
killed and 57 wounded in 417 attacks on schools within just a four-month
period. In all 47 children were kidnapped on their way to or from school
over the period.
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