An Iraqi Girl Smiles ...

I took the below picture at an anti-war public display last year (in October 2007). This is Ulia Tahi, age 9, who was killed around 17-20 June, 2005. Next to her picture-frame are her shoes and a candle lit in her memory. This particular image made me very sad and has stuck in my mind since then. It makes me somber every time I see it.

Today I was searching for some image on google and came across with this wikimedia link. To my surprise, this link contained this exact picture, but with the caption "Iraqi Girl Smiles". The picture was taken on 7 March, 2003. Ulia was still alive then...

This finding renewed the grief. I felt as if I am seeing her smiling and cheerful standing right in front of me. And I felt as if her life from the moment that picture was taken on 7 March, 2003 to 17-20 June, 2005 played like a film in her curious eyes within a few painful instants. I could see the US invasion in Iraq that happened within couple of weeks, on 20 March, 2003. The declaration of "mission accomplished" in the following May. The capture of brutal Saddam Hussein in Dec, 2003. The everyday bomb explosions and violence, the death and destruction in the following two years. Ulia must have spent her last days in the middle of all that chaos, until...

Was she even able to smile during those fearful days? How did she die? How was it for her parents to see her leave this world so young? Were they alive to see her die? My heart wondered about these questions. No answer. Just a painful sight for me in that picture.

Here is what the author of this picture wrote when she uploaded it on wikimedia (dated: 5 Feb 2005):

Iraqi Girl Smiles
Iraqi girl living next to Al Daura Oil Refinery in Baghdad pauses for a smile amongst jostling children.



"I managed to snap a picture of this stunning looking Iraqi girl while I was touring Al Daura Oil Refinery as part of the Human Shield Action to Iraq. I took this photo, and many more, of the children living next to the refinery where their parents worked. They were all quite enjoying themselves and I managed to get mobbed a couple of times. I often look back on this photo and wonder if she, and her friends, are still alive. I hope to go back one day and find out." —Christiaan 11:58, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Ulia was alive when Christiaan posted that picture online. The wikimedia page says that this image was selected as a picture of the day for March 15, 2005. Ulia was still alive then. She is not with us anymore though. But wherever she is now, I am sure she is happy and smiling, inshallah.

Some estimate that a million have already died since March 2003. Add another million or so who died under Saddam's brutal rule and as a result of international sanctions. Ulia's story is but one of those many thousand stories that need to be told.

Stop the war. Stop this injustice. Do some thing. Anything!