Malala and Abeer: The difference in the narrative told by the West
By: Ayesha Nasir Have you heard of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi ? Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi was a 14-year-old Iraqi girl who lived in a house to the southwest of Yusufiyah, a village to the west of the town of Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq . She lived a middle-class life with her 34-year-old mother Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, 45-year-old father Qasim Hamza Raheem, two brothers and younger sister, six-year-old Hadeel Qasim Hamza. Though not much is known about Abeer , one can imagine her childhood; playing with rag dolls, following her mother as she made khameeri rotis and tossing one pebble after another in a stream running near their house. ol but kept Abeer home due to security concerns. Neighbours later recalled that she wasn’t allowed to do much other than assist her mother in the chores and tend to their vegetable garden. Their house was only 200 meters away from a US traffic checkpoint, and the neighbours later remarked that they often observed the soldiers watchi...