Gallery
Dima’s Biography, Baghdad
Open Shutters is a participatory photography program – run by British Photographer, Eugenie Dolberg – training women to share their stories using photographs and writing.
Open Shutters Iraq
I love Iraq…I dont want to live anywhere else…No, I dont want to leave it…Everyone I love is here my granny, my aunt, my uncle, all my family and friends…When I was very young and lived outside Iraq with my mum and dad, I didnt have any friends. My mum and I would stay in the flat all day long yes, its true my mum used to play and draw palm trees with me, but I didnt have any family there or friends…I was lonely…and my mum was lonely too.
I feel like Iraq is becoming empty…Everyone we know and love is going away and leaving us behind…my friends – Nazaline and Aya and Hayat…the school bus drivers…
my friend, Taqas dad went to Syria, my friend Nours uncle to Egypt…A lot of my schoolmates miss classes. In my classroom ,we used to have 3 rows of desks, 10 in each row, and 2 of us sat at each desk. Now we only have 2 rows and there are just 5 girls in each row.
If we have our own army, why are the Americans here? Why dont they kick the Americans out of our country? Anyway, dont the Americans have their own country? Why have they come here to ours?
Why are so many people dying here, when theyre not sick or old?
I love taking photos of my friends…My mum doesnt like me taking pictures of her…I really love taking pictures of people without them knowing…I love taking photos of myself a lot Ive taken so many pictures of myself…sometimes, I laugh and say its amazing how much I like myself!
I play with my friends at home. When I get back from school, I do my homework and have my lunch quickly. Then Nour and Zeinab come over. We go out into the garden and play all sorts of games. When sunset comes, their mums or brothers come to take them home and my mum makes me go into the house…she never lets me stay in the garden. She always locks the door.
A few times, not many…my mum lets me sit on the bench in the street with my friends…she always stands close by and sometimes my aunt or my grandmother sit by the garden gate and keep an eye on us…When I see a strange man pretending to be a beggar, I run and hide in the house and my friends run away to their houses too…We dont want him to know there are kids here. He might steal us from our families and they would have to give him money to get us back my mother or my uncle would have to pay, but probably he still wouldnt give us back…so we hide in our houses and doesnt know there are kids here, so he gets tired and leaves…Its better that way, isnt it?
August 2007
Contact teacher: Eugenie Dolberg, director, Open Shutters Iraq
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