Hw 28: Open Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,

After reading your blogs from August through September of 2003, the posts gave me a true sense of what your life is like. Even after reading the first entry you wrote when you talk about how awful you night sleep was the previous night, and then in later posts you continue to write about your insomnia and how uncomfortable it is to sleep. I immediately began to feel the pain and suffering you are going through just by the first post. It doesn't take a lot to realize the awful things that you and your family are going through, but there were a few events that really caught my attention. One post that I was blown away with more than the others, was Saturday August 23rd. You discussed how females can no longer leave their homes alone. "Each time i go out, E. and either a father, uncle, or cousin has to accompany me. It feels like we've gone back 50 years ever since the beginning of the occupation." Even how you are told what to wear, and how you would never leave the house if you weren't wearing a long skirt and a long sleeved loose shirt. It amazes me how girls who wear jeans are at risk of being attacked or abducted because here in America just about everyone wears jeans. Another post that caught my attention was Saturday, September 6th, 2003. It is titled "Bad, Bad, Bad Day." One bad thing that occurred Wasthe Mosque shooting in Al-Sha'ab. I think it is awful that things like this occur on a regular basis and you don't even get to know the amount of people that die in such an traumatic event. Another thing that happened in this post was the electricity was off and the water pumps didn't work leaving you and your family with no water to shower, wash dishes, or to do laundry with. It is tragic to hear that things like this happen on a regular basis also, and there is nothing that can be done about it. These blog entries that you wrote over the course of a month, really gave me a feel for the things you and your family suffer from day to day, but also what it is like to be female and Muslim living in Iraq.

Sincerely,
Hannah