Stop them for they are to be questioned

This is a divine call that will include us all in one of the most important stances in our lives, a vital section of the resurrection day, where we will meet the Lord. But my standing to be questioned is different from yours as it will be different from theirs. For the responsibility and questioning are different. A housewife’s stance will be different from a writer’s since her responsibility is her family while a writer is responsible the words he delivers to people and surely it will differ from the stance of an official in decision making position whose responsibility includes all the people, the people that his responsibility includes them.
Let’s imagine that people- or citizens as they are called- are like Kaaba since “Human honor is holier than Kaaba’s honor”. And the official in charge of them (governor or anyone else) circumambulates around them since his responsibility is to know what’s wrong with them and care for their issues and solve their problems and work hard to provide for their needs. So we can say that he circumambulates around them since it is his responsibility and circumambulation has its own rules and regulations most important of which is remembering God in every moment and movement since it aims to satisfy God.
This is how I understand responsibility and this is how officials circumambulate around their Kaaba. That is why their stance on the resurrection day will differ from ours, and we might wonder what they have prepared for that great scene in the presence of Allah.
So I panicked when I saw the photos from Mithagh Neighborhood in Musayib village north of Babel province, and listened to their tragic stories as if they were from another planet and era, not the era of democracy and modern technology and human rights chanted by everyone. Where do we stand from these people? Where do we stand from women’s rights and honorable life for women –what we have been calling for since 2005 to now-? Where does Bent Al Rafedain stand from the misery of women and their decline in health and the destruction of her family and children in that miserable neighborhood? What have you done Bent Al Rafedain?
When you read the story of Mithagh neighborhood in this issue you will freak out, then you will feel deep sadness. Can this really be happening? Yes it can. But more importantly can we do anything for them? Can we raise our voice to create a thunderstorm hoping that it would eventually rain for them with mercy?
This is what we did at Bent Al Rafedain. We exposed their suffering to Babel City Hall. We contacted the health organization in Babel, and communicated with Musayib City Hall and displayed their suffering on media. And we will stay with them till they get their right of honorable life in the era of election and democracy and human rights.
This issue that you are reading is a part of Bent Al Rafedain’s call for helping the residents of this miserable neighborhood, a call that will continue till these citizens who make a large number of the residents in this district, are provided with honorable life. A call that would continue circuma
mbulating around their Kaaba, and I hope the officials in Babel province join us in our circumambulation with all their resources fearing that final scene, fearing the call that “stop them for they are to be questioned” because in my opinion they cannot pass that stand easily in the other world with its different standards.
It is a challenge for the officials in Babel province; let’s hope they succeed in facing it.

Alyaa Al Ansari
Activist in the field of women’s rights &
executive director of Bent Al Rafedain Org.
alyaa@brob.org