The children are forced to beg from time to time in order to buy some food - something that used to be illegal, if widely practiced anyway, in Iraq - but none of them claimed they’d been mistreated by either the American troops or Iraqi police. They told Al-Muajaha, “Nobody stops us, and nobody asks us about anything.”
With their pockets empty of money and oil, perhaps everyone will always leave them alone.
Arkan, a shy 13 year old who wouldn’t speak to us at first, finally confessed, “I never eat. I don’t want money. I just want food.”
With their pockets empty of money and oil, perhaps everyone will always leave them alone.
Arkan, a shy 13 year old who wouldn’t speak to us at first, finally confessed, “I never eat. I don’t want money. I just want food.”
Ahmed Abdel Sada sat quietly and refused to share his story when we tried to interview him. Later, a man who knows some of the children told us the source of the bruise on Ahmed’s forehead.
He said, “This kid was in a fight, and got the bruise on his head a few days ago when he was trying to protect a 15 year old girl from some drunks who were trying to rape her.”
