Blood in the streets of Syria
By Sumayya Suleman
“Why is life so hard” ~ Ivine
Our children grow up watching fairy tales, hoping and aspiring to become someone someday. ‘Normally’, if we ask any child, “what do you wish to become when you grow up?”, they’d ‘normally’ answer, “A Doctor” or “A Pilot”. If the same question is asked from a Syrian child, you know their ‘normal’ answer would be? “I just pray me, my family and my friends survive”.
Is that what a mere 4-year-old is supposed to wish for? Does that sound ‘NORMAL’ to you?
Ivine, a fourteen years old Syrian girl tells her story: “I was very scared. I was hiding in the living room. All the streets were covered with blood. I along with my family had to get in the inflatable boats. We were scared of drowning. People were screaming and crying. We had to go so far… We used to go to bed hungry and wake up hungry. We had to sleep in wilderness. I’d have nightmares at night and I’d cry.. I’d wake up and my pillow would be soaking wet from all the tears. I feel so sad, why is life so hard?”
My question to everyone today is: Isn’t everyone supposed to have right to life, food, liberty and security? Today, people are so lost in their greed for this world that they’ve forgotten about the Supreme Authority watching over them, and that one day justice will be served. I could easily say that the little love and care we see between the animals, belonging to the same breed or not, isn’t what we get to see in humans (or should I even call them that?).
It’s sad and scary that the lust for this world has blinded us so much that we’re ready to take the lives of the innocent children. And if we can’t kill them physically, then perhaps mentally? Ivine is just one of those Syrian refugee children suffering from emotional traumas because of the horrors of war.
How many stories of our children out there are still unheard? They could be going through worst (they are going through worst) and we wouldn’t ever know… in all this, their innocence and childhood has been lost (more of brutally taken away) from them.
They’ve lost friends, siblings, parents… they’ve lost themselves. They’ve lost everything! They’ve seen their loved ones die before their own eyes. How much more do they have to lose? What else could they possibly lose now? I guess some stories just weren’t meant for children. Stories, that no child should even imagine, let alone endure.
