THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

I have been screaming about this for a while and my heart is breaking after seeing the video of a grandfather cradling his young granddaughter dead in his arms. After putting her hair into little buns saying it was her favourite hairstyle. Calling her the “soul of my soul”. How can anyone see this action as monstrous?!

How can anyone see a truck full of naked and scared men and boys IN WINTER MONTHS and believe “they went willingly” and “they are part of Hammas” and then watch them being murdered in the middle of the desert. How can anyone watch a man be forcefully stripped naked and humiliated and violated in the worst way possible and call him a monster? If it was a woman (and believe me this is happening to them too) everyone would be on it. But because it’s men, Middle Eastern men and boys, regardless of their faith, nobody cares.

“They are Hammas”, “Men can’t be assaulted”, “They are terrorists”- Has patriarchy, islamophobia, feminism and colonialism really stripped us from any empathy?! Have we really been conditioned to see men as nothing but cannon fodder?! Expendable?? What difference does it make accusing Middle Eastern men of being terrorists than accusing black men of being criminals?

Seeing these brave doctors trying to take care of their patients amongst the ruins and rubble with minimal supplies and no anaesthesia, risking their own lives and safety to take care of everyone and seeing them labelled as monsters, inhuman and terrorists… I lose hope for humanity every time. But seeing things like this post it gives me that sliver of hope back that not everything is a lost cause yet.

Because men are always the first to go when genocide starts. Because once they get rid of the men and boys the rest are easy targets for foreign men to exploit. It’s all by design. Look into history, look up Srebrenica Massacre/Genocide that happened during Bosnia War in 1995. Men are deserving of dignity, respect and justice just as much as women are.

Your intentional blindness and unwillingness to unlearn the western propaganda and narrative is not an excuse.

the men and boys are innocent too.

we cry "the innocent women and children" to appeal to the masses, to try and force their sympathy, but the men and boys are innocent too.

I have seen sons crying out for their mothers, their fathers, their siblings. I have seen them break down at the loss of their families. I have seen them cling to their dead and grieve.

I have seen fathers cradle their dead children, seen them kiss their faces and hold their little hands. I have seen them faint with grief when asked to identify the dead. I have seen them carry their sons and daughters. I have seen them fasting to provide what little they can for their families.

I have seen men and boys digging through the rubble with just their bare hands, I have seen them comforting strangers, playing with children, rocking them, hushing them, even if the face of such imminent danger. I have seen them cry, seen them grieve, seen them break down into each other's arms, seen them be selfless, beyond selfless, becoming something I don't have a word for.

I have seen the men who are doctors refuse to leave their patients, even when they have no medicine or supplies to give them, even when they're threatened with bombings. I have seen fathers who have lost all their children pick orphans up into their arms and proclaim them their child so they are not alone. I have seen men and boys digging pets out of the rubble.

the men are innocent too. the men and boys are being hurt and killed too. the men and boys are grieving too. the men and boys are scared too. the men and boys are fighting to save their people too. the men and boys deserve to be fought for too.