Being a single mother is always tough, doing it in Baghdad is tougher. CNN's Arwa Damon reports
Being a poor single mother anywhere is tough. But with Iraq's relentless violence and lack of government institutions, it’s much, much tougher. Welcome to the Hamza household with its cloth walls, makeshift kitchen and tiny room for Ikhlas and her two children. Ikhlas used to live in Sadr City a sprawling Shia muslim.but she divorced her husband about a year ago. ”When I got divorced I should have gone back to live with my family. But they said the kids have to stay with their father and I wouldn't give my children to him.” And so rather than give up her kids, she came to live here, a warehouse-turned squatter camp. No power, no gas, no water, the bathroom filthy. Government assistance nonexistent and Ikhlas earning just $100 a month cleaning houses, whatever extra help the family receives comes from local militiamen. The Mahedi militia, loyal to radical Shia clerk Mohamud al Sadr blamed for much of the sectarian violence but here they provide Ikhals and her family with something the government can't or won't. ”We’ve only got god and the Mehedi army. They come by once or twice a week to check on us. They give us money and rations.” It is something militias do routinely, a winning of hearts and minds the government often fails to achieve. Because of the poor security situation, there's not much for children to do for fun here. Eight year-old Dali does not go to school. Instead he helps out at a mechanics shop making about 30 cents a day and plays rough with his kid sister. Just being seen talking to westerners can be a death sentence in Baghdad. But Ikhals says it is worth the gamble. She wants her story told, she says, a desperate cry for help to anyone who will listen.
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