Born Different: Iraqi Female Survivor Among Traditions, Religion and War

by Wafaa Becker

Overview

I was born in 1984, in between two wars—four years after the beginning of the Iraq–Iran War, which lasted seven years and ten months, and six years before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait—to a very poor family in the worst neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. I was born to an unloving, emotionally cold mother and an alcoholic father, and yet here I am now, a mother myself, and I could not love my daughter more. They named me Wafaa, which means "loyalty," but I have never known what loyalty was in my life. The family I grew up in did not provide me with a refuge or a safe place; they were like strangers to me. I have seen too much hypocrisy in how they practiced their religion. My voice was muted for many years, but my hope and ambitions were louder. I was always seeking my mother's affection and love, but I was never seen or heard; rather, I was abused and wounded. I live everyday with what I have been through, but I believe there is a reason God wanted me to be born and to suffer. There is a hadith (saying of the Prophet Muhammad) in Islam: When God loves a people, he will test them. Maybe he was testing me or testing my strength. With this book, I am finally breaking the silence that I have kept for years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780692172186
Publisher:	Wafaa Becker
Publication date:	08/02/2018
Pages:	92
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.19(d)

About the Author

Wafaa Becker was born in 1984 in Baghdad, Iraq in between two wars—four years after the beginning of the Iraq–Iran War, which lasted seven years and ten months, and six years before Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait—to a very poor family in the worst neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. The severe traditions, Hypocrisy of religion and wars had pushed her to escape her house after her family put her under house arrest. Wafaa then found a job on an American base as a linguist for the US army from 2007 until 2009.