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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Your Iraq: A woman's burden |
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| siddiqui |
| 06/01/04 at 16:26:35 |
| BBC News Online has asked readers to send in their personal experiences of the recent conflict in Iraq and its aftermath. The third part of the series features two women - aid worker Andrea Swinburne-Jones from World Vision relief organisation and an Iraqi schoolteacher she met in western Iraq called Bushra. Here, Andrea relates her meeting with Bushra and describes the Iraqi woman's struggle to support her family and provide for her students following the war. In June last year, I meet a woman who had just been elected principal of a girls' school with around 160 pupils in a small town in western Iraq. The programme manager and I arrived at the primary school and were ushered into the principal's office to be served a customary cup of shay (Arabic tea). World Vision had been rehabilitating schools in this town for about two months by this stage. The people we've met in this town have been extremely generous hosts. Bushra - which means "good news" in Arabic - had been an Arabic teacher and helped with administration prior to the outbreak of war. We arranged to meet the next day to do the interview. Next morning we arrived just before 1000. Bushra was wearing a beautiful cream-coloured outfit with gold piping on the sleeves. It looked like something kept for special occasions. It really made an impression on me as the day before she wore a simple green outfit. Dressing up was a huge compliment. We covered many topics - her role as a teacher, her new task as principal, the effect of the war on "her children" (as that is how she saw her students), the future of the town and Iraq. I had to hold back tears when Bushra told me the reason for holding the interview at the school, not at her house. "My home was hit during a bombing raid," she said. "I don't understand why. We don't have nuclear weapons. I felt embarrassed because I didn't want you to see the home. "We are now sharing a two-room house with relatives." Family and pride We also talked about what it has was like being a woman in Iraq. "It started with the Iran-Iraq war," she said. "Men went off to fight and women were left to look after the children, the elderly, the sick," she said. "As a married, working woman I am taking care of income responsibilities and the family. No country has suffered like Iraq, women here have gone through a lot Iraqi schoolteacher Bushra "Women in Iraq are fighters. We are taking care of our family and our pride. We are strong as much as we are caring and loving. We are under a lot of pressure," she added. "Why should we suffer as women, especially when we have sick husbands? We have all this oil and we are still suffering. "We have worked as cleaners, cooks... why should we have to go through this?" "My husband is a police officer, I am a principal," she told me. "We are educated. We cannot even afford to buy the basics. Women here give up everything for their families, their children. "Girls are taken out of school early. We have some very smart girls here at the school - when they are taken out of school they feel defeated. "We have an obligation to teach them till the sixth grade level. We encourage families to let them continue their education, however some of them see us as a bother," she added with sadness. Yet amidst the sadness of Bushra's words was determination. "Since 1980, I really appreciate Iraqi women - no country has suffered like Iraq," she said. "Women here have gone through a lot." Do you have an experience you would like to share with us? Send your letters, e-mails, diary entries or thoughts using the form below. If you have an existing email that you would prefer to forward to the BBC, send it to talkingpoint@bbc.co.uk Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/talking_point/3767211.stm Published: 2004/06/01 17:09:17 GMT © BBC MMIV |
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