From one of the Iraqi blogs I follow. She is a 27 year old woman living in Baghdad. In her "profile" she says: "They say there are hardly any bright sides in Iraq. That's not true, I managed to see some.... Now I'm running out of hope.
http://firstwordsfirstwalkfirstiniraq.blogspot.com/Sunday, December 24, 2006
Thank Goodness It's Friday
Unlike many people waking up on the sounds of chirping birds, commercial planes or noises of construction works, I have started to be awakened on the sound of the muezzin, not to notify me and other worshippers in the neighbourhood about times for prayers, as his job specifications stipulate, but to announce recent deaths so that men could run to the mosque to offer the funeral prayer and escort the newly killed body to the nearest cemetery. I have developed a habit of counting how many announcements are made per week and hoping that the muezzin will not say, "THE HAPPY MARTYR has left for the afterlife", a phrase denoting the fact that the deceased was killed by militias. I gave a sigh of relief when he did not mention these scary words in a recent announcement. Sadly, step-dad joined the prayer as he always do and saw the poor man's body, the skull was severed, right eye poked and front teeth removed. No need to say happy martyrs, because there are plenty of them, any recent death is just a statistic that adds up to our bewilderment and pain.
It was not news to me when I noticed such announcements are never made on Fridays, not only because it's an official Islamic holiday, and not because Fridays are the militias' Sabbath, it is because of the blessed state-imposed curfew, which has given families a chance to gather without worrying about possible excruciating deaths of their loved ones.
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