Iraq’s Wonder Woman in Her 70s
Iraq’s Wonder Woman in Her 70s Waleed Ibrahim | Al Jazeera Bureau Chief – Baghdad
How can a woman in her 70s provide for her 22 grandchildren? That was the question in my mind as I filmed Sanaa Ibrahim in Mosul. Sanaa’s life was thrown into turmoil virtually overnight – as all five of her sons and her four son- in-laws were killed in the notorious Battle of Mosul. She found herself responsible for her orphaned grandchildren as well as those of her widowed daughters. It was one of the most memorable stories I had covered during my career and selecting the words and images to be included in the two-minute report was a herculean task. With her heartache clear in her rattling voice, Sanaa had told her story with such emotion that we’d had to pause several times. “After what had happened in Mosul, I could no longer receive my husband’s pension. I had no alternative but to work to support the family. Most of the work is given to me by generous people only to help our large family,” she said. Since Mosul was liberated from the shackles of ISIL in 2017, other tragic stories continue to emerge from
a city destined to pay the highest price for the war against that group in Iraq. The excessive use of force by the Iraqi army backed by the Global Coalition Against Daesh (ISIL), chiefly the air strikes, turned the city to ash and forced out its residents. Covering the military operations in Mosul was not easy for us, simply because the Iraqi authorities denied Al Jazeera and its journalists access to the city. We had no alternative but to cover the battle from the nearby Erbil bureau, relying on our associates inside Mosul. The news and footage we used to receive from Mosul showed the catastrophic realties inside the city; it was total destruction. The number of civilian fatalities and casualties was more than could be counted. The pungent smell of blood still hangs in the air. Despite being denied access to the city, Al Jazeera covered the raging battles as if we were embedded with Iraqi forces. We did our best to tell the truth; to tell the human stories inside the war-ravaged city. We lived through the pain and suffering of our fellow Iraqis in Mosul and elsewhere, while maintaining our objectivity and covering the story from all angles.
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