This experience is essential from a human point of view. It's also crucial for the various feelings and realities that I will try to "print" and reveal through my articles and photos. My favorite subject is the condition of women and girls in Iraq. I'm going to listen to their words, silences, claims and hopes. I will try to seize their glances, to catch a moment in the life of these women, of these girls in the turmoil of this war which does'nt finish. I'm going to meet them as if I were visiting the members of my own humane family. That's the main thing. It does not matter what these women will dare or be able to tell me, what they will reveal about their life or inner feelings. Try to decipher the language of the human heart in such a situation will give all the depth to this work, like a unique testimony of our time.

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Several reports will be carried out from this trip: Among them, one will be about the action of the ABIR association and the female members who want to carry this mission to a successful conclusion ; an other will concentrate on the women whose responsibility is the management of the various reception facilities in Baghdad and on those which benefit from it (See an extract below). Other reports will be possible that I can't reveal right now because it will depend on our work on the spot and on the opportunities which will arise at the time (investigations, testimonies, interviews…). However, these reports will be always marked by the interest which I carry in the fate of Iraqi girls and women who are plunged by force into a burning situation which consumes them more every day.

… Thierry Robin “Centifolia” - email - tel : +33 492 571 632

:: Extract of the presentation of the trip in Iraq by the ABIR association:

This trip was organized with the aim of bringing material to a dispensary (Al Hourryya), an orphanage (Dar An-Najat) and a local association (Al Amal). These organizations are all well known by the ABIR association which already met the persons in charge on several occasions during previous trips in Iraq.

The Al Hourryya dispensary is located in one of the popular districts of Baghdad. It is directed by a team of doctors, all volunteers, who accomodate between 500 and 600 patients per day. They also collect money to buy drugs but because of a shortage in pharmacies they can't get some any more. The American leaders have decided that when drugs would be distributed, medical centers like Al Hourryya would not profit from them because they were created after the fall of the régime of Saddam Hussein.

The Dar An-Najat orphanage is located at the edge of the Tigris river. The building was rehabilitated and the furniture was repaired thanks to the financing of an arab NGO. It accomodates about fifty "illegitimate" children, from zero to 18 years old, abandoned in the street or at the hospital.

We will also meet Hanaa Edward, 50 years old, who came back to Iraq after 20 years of voluntary exile. Hanaa founded the association Al Amal (The Hope) with Arab friends and Iraqi living abroad. It currently supports 2600 women and pursues a principal goal: To fight the discriminations against women during the Saddam Hussein's régime. The association is active in the field of health and education and organizes seminars of consciousness-raising and debate about the rights and laws regarding women. The association created a place of refuge for the beaten women and is also involved in a program concerning the contamination of water

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