I have shed tears and questioned even the most distant consequences of the actions that I had documented. In my mind, war and its effects make no sense. The eight-year long war between Iran and Iraq marked a harsh awakening in my life; the death of my nineteen year old cousin; my mother living in a constant state of grief and fear, and I, as a four year old girl shaken by the trauma surrounding me. My hands ached with the desire to write a letter to my father who was serving on the war front. The shrill sound of the alarm from the radio; my little brother’s toy tank – a souvenir from the US; the blackness of my veil preventing me from seeing the dead bodies in the ambulance…I remember it all vividly. It is still so dark, but it is not distant.

Like feathers in the wind, my childhood dreams never came within my reach; and still I see them dancing and hovering in the misty and gloomy sky of my heart, almost within reach.

About the Somalia project:

On the 6th of August 2011, Islamist militia Al-Shabaab retreated from Mogadishu, leaving city wounded by two decades of civil war. Inhabitants, still terrified by snipers, abandoned several districts. Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, where hundreds of people arrived every day in order to avoid starvation were spread out in the whole city. Transitional Government Forces, there to protect the population, were sometimes responsible for serious human rights violations in the IDP camps, and AMISON (African Union Peace Forces) couldn’t manage such a large-scale crises single handedly. People were trapped between an incompetent authority and an armed group which blocked humanitarian aid from reaching its destination, necessary to help people against one of the worst droughts in the ‘Horn of Africa’, a term given to the region. Those who tried to flee eventually reached the biggest IDP camp in Dadaab, Kenya, having left behind their tattered homes, lacking any sense of security.

 

A dead body of a Somali man seen lay down in Madineh Hospital of Mogadishu city, Somalia. A huge car bomb has exploded outside a government building in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least 70 and wounding dozens. The explosion went off near the Ministry of Education where students were reportedly sitting for a foreign scholarship examination. Eye-witnesses say an unidentified vehicle was used to carry out the attack. Al Shabaab insurgents, which have links to Al-Qaeda, said they were behind the assault.

 

A displaced girl, who suffers from infectious disease and famine, looks on in Badbadoo camp in Mogadishu, Somalia.

A Somali girl walks as she passes a damaged church in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia.

A huge car bomb has exploded outside a government building in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least 70 and wounding dozens. The explosion went off near the Ministry of Education where students were reportedly sitting for a foreign scholarship examination. Eye-witnesses say an unidentified vehicle was used to carry out the attack. Al Shabaab insurgents, which have links to Al-Qaeda, said they were behind the assault.

Somalian children waiting to get food from WFP (World Food Program), Mogadishu, Somalia.

A view of the city and People living in Mogadishu.

A Somali man passes a building which damaged during civil war in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia.

Somali boys run to catch a bus in a civil war damaged area in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia.

A disable man who lost his leg in war along others walks at a street in Mogadishu, Somalia.