i s h t a r r i a........

Politics, religion and traditions have been and, perhaps, will remain, at least, for the foreseeable future the major factors impacting upon, shaping and intensely gripping the Middle-Eastern region, and ultimately bearing down momentously upon the lives of its people. Political terrorization, to be precise, was instrumental in granting Saddam utter dominance, thus rendering the Iraqis totally submissive, captive, and incarcerated in a huge metaphorical prison that had been set up by the dictator and the overwhelming fear he had long established. Fear was the repulsive companion that adhered indivisibly to the minds and hearts of the Iraqis irrespective of time or place, and it survived yet notwithstanding the demise of the dictator or the efforts they made to extricate themselves from it. Being Iraqi, I wouldn’t be any different. The dictator has gone, my fears haven’t. The dictator has gone, traditions still exist. The dictator has gone, religion sustains, still, the upper hand. And