Bitter Smile

"Unlike everyday, I started my day looking at a picture of a beautiful Iraqi woman wearing a traditional Iraqi dress. As usual, Iraqis start their days with pictures of explosions, people running, a woman weeping, a child crying, a group of people shot dead and so on. This morning was different; they started the day with this beautiful smile which they miss a lot.
The picture showed a young Iraqi model putting on a beautiful Arabic traditional dress, Galabiya, with golden decorations. This model’s picture was taken yesterday during the opening of the Iraqi folkloric fashion show sponsored by the Iraqi culture ministry. “Wow! It’s weird. I thought I will see either a picture of a bombing or something like that,” I said to O. I cheered up and was so delighted to see a picture of a woman with a beautiful smile, a smile that is almost missing due to the daily suffering in an occupied and destroyed country.

I have to say that the daily pictures I see everyday makes me so sad and increase my pain to watch my country destroyed. But today, this picture changed my mood. I kept staring at it and thought about how we are far from happiness and smile to the extent I found this picture strange.

Now, back to reality!"
Treasure of Baghdad