Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues



October 2, 2008

I, the Iraqi, Arab woman, I offer you this.

Not because I particularly care about you, but because I want it to be recorded...
I want it to be jotted down for all to see. I want it to be heard, read, and passed on...

This is a mail I received from P.A. I am decent enough to withhold his name, when I could have published it all over the Internet. This is what he had to say.

"I was sitting in my home here in America trolling the Internet when I came across your blog on how much you hate america and americans. I found it mildly amusing to read while I look around my neighborhood and watch the children play with no fear of suicide bombers, the sounds of birds and laughter filling the air. No soldiers running the streets, no Jihadis opressing my daughter. Free to move or go anywhere I wish with no fear of being killed by my neighbor or religious fanatic. It made me think of the great life America affords me and the life most in the middle east will never have. The hatred you show is what makes your part of the world so dispicable. So I say enjoy your hate filled life and continue to watch your men die young, your women be opressed, and your children raised into intolerance. This will be sure to build trust in the rest of the world, and by the way...we know how you and your kind feel about americans, we just don't give a rats ass!
Assalam Alaikum"

P.A, please learn how to spell first. I know you Americans are very dumb for starters, but that is no reason to continue with your orthographic errors.

Besides P.A, for me you are a nothing. An absolute blank. Your name means nothing, neither your origins. The fact that you are a father does not move me, neither do your surroundings. You are inconsequential, like all of America.

You see, I don't even hate you. Hate would involve some energy, some investment, some effort, you are not even worth that. You are a nothing for me. If I have contempt for you, then you should consider yourself lucky. That would have meant, I have given you my attention.

There is one basic thing you don't comprehend. When your ilk pass by, we don't even care...anymore.

Do you know what this means ? It means that you do not exist in our minds.

Sure you are there, in armour and weapons, but you simply don't exist for us.

We erased you. As simple as that.

You are a non entity, a non being, a thing...You are a thing. And we treat and see you as a thing. Because a thing is what you are.

Being the kind of thing you are, this will not bother you much, hence you will understand.

P.A, you are nothing. Another American asshole, and there are so many of you around.
You did not and do not contribute anything to history, nor will you ever. You are less than paper tiger. We made history happen.

You need to understand something here, I doubt that you can. Real history is made of men, not robots. And for me you are nothing but a robot, a boring one for that matter. Like any machine, I can switch you on and off, and I switched you on...

Now am switching you off, for you don't exist in my mind. You are nothing, you were nothing and you will remain nothing.

Picture : Samarra, Iraq.