arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

A Letter from an Iraqi Mother to the Mothers of the Americans Killed in Fallujah


Dear Sisters,


I call upon you because we are sisters in motherhood.

The American media described us with as "barbarians", "savages", and "criminals" in the aftermath of the mob lynching scenes of the bodies of charred Americans in Fallujah, as Iraqis beat on dead bodies then hung them off a bridge. But the American media does not want you to know the true picture against which those scenes took place, nor does it want to let you know why Iraqis did this thing. The media does not want you to know the extent to which Iraqis have come to hate the soldiers of the occupation for them to act like this.

I address you as American women, as mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters.

Sisters, I know how painful it is for a woman to lose someone dear. I can feel your pain. For we, Iraqi women, have lost too much, and have suffered what no mother on the face of the earth has. For example, when your government imposed the unjust embargo on our country, we had to watch our children everyday dying from lack of medicine. Because of the weapons of mass destruction your soldiers used, especially depleted uranium, we had to carry babies in our wombs for nine months only to see them born severely deformed. As if all this was not enough for your government, it topped all it off with a war that it launched under false pretexts just to control our wealth, our oil and resources. And it was a brutal war in which many of our children were killed and many others were arrested, both sons and daughters. As of today, your government continues to kill and arrest our sons and daughters. So, after all this, do you still wonder why Iraqis carry such hatred in their hearts towards your kids?!


You sons, dear sisters, were not exactly angels or missionaries preaching the religion of mercy! Your sons have killed our fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. Your sons have stolen, pillaged, raped, polluted the earth and the water, and burnt the fields. In fact, dear sisters, your sons are the real barbarians, the murderers, and criminals. Therefore, please don't blame us for hating them..

Dear sisters, I call upon you, as someone just like you who has experienced the pain of Iraqi brothers and sons being killed by the invaders in the worst possible way: if you want our collective pains not to increase and multiply, and if you want the return of your sons and husbands back home safe and sound, PLEASE LET THEM LEAVE IRAQ, for they are NOT welcome here. And, therefore, I tell you that nobody can possibly promise you that the lynching scenes of yesterday in Fallujah won't be repeated again, okay?

Why do you let your loved ones be sacrificed like this, dear sisters? So murdering beasts like Bush, Rumsfeld, Sharon, and Halliburton would get richer and more powerful? Is that a good reason for them to die? We think not. We want it all to stop, for us and for you. So please let your children leave Iraq alone.

Sincerely,



An Iraqi Mother