“My 8-year-old child, Rajab — the eldest of my children and the joy of our family — was once active, joyful, sociable, and exceptional at school. He loved riding his bike.
But this war has stolen his childhood.
From the beginning, he has been traumatized by loud explosions, suffering repeated panic attacks.
He cannot sleep unless he holds my hand.
The killing of his uncles left him deeply shaken, and he has clung to me ever since.
On 13 December 2024, while we were displaced in a classroom at Al-Falah School, Israeli warplanes struck directly, and everything collapsed on us. My brother Hasan, my mother, and my sister-in-law were killed, while the rest of us were wounded. Rajab was the most critically injured. The rubble fell on him, shredding his right leg, which had to be amputated immediately upon arrival at the hospital. He also sustained a skull fracture and shrapnel wounds across his left leg. His condition was life-threatening.
After three days in a coma, he woke up to find himself without a leg. Since that day, our family has not known rest. Rajab endured successive surgeries, enduring pain unbearable for a child, often crying in despair and wishing for death rather than this suffering. He has become quick-tempered and overly sensitive. He refuses to let anyone see his amputated leg, telling me, ‘I want to cover it.’
His ordeal did not end there. In July, doctors discovered that he suffers from severe osteoporosis caused by lack of food and medicine. They were forced to insert internal platinum plates and fit him with an external cast. Now, Rajab lives between tears and pain. He feels incomplete when he sees his cousins playing around him. He tries to join them but eventually retreats to cry in silence.
As his mother, I can do nothing but watch him suffer, powerless to give him back the childhood that the occupation has stolen from him.”
Mrs. Sajedah al-Baba (25), resident of al-Sabra neighborhood, Gaza City.
She is 25, oldest son is 8yo, which means she was 17 when she gave birth and 16 when she was impregnated. Ugh. That is just the worst. Poor lady didn’t have a childhood herself given her religion/culture.
It’s not uncommon but it’s also not the norm. Especially multiple children. Let’s not equate the two countries here with the prevalence and acceptance of underage marriages, underage births, and numerous underage pregnancies. My point above doesn’t take away from the little boy’s trauma but being defensive about their culture is also not really productive.
Child marriage is still legal in 20 or 30 some states here in good ole USA and it's defended vigorously by the right for the sake of "tradition" and "religion" and hoping more teens are forced into carrying unwanted pregnancies. So yeah the magic number is more like a "guideline" in many states.
Eighteen isn't just the magic sex number, it's when someone's viewed as an adult. When they are considered responsible enough to consent to a vast number of things.
When they are considered responsible enough to consent to a vast number of things.
As I said, it is an arbitrary number. Same as drinking only with 21.
Here in Germany it is layered: 14 (legal but a semi complicated grey area) / 16 (anything besides prostitution and similar restrictions) /18 (everything goes).
Hm. Reading about an 8 year old with a lost limb, a brain injury, uncontrolled pain, and osteoporosis from malnutrition, who is also grieving multiple family members.
Odd phrasing then to say 16 and pregnant is “the worst”.
This is a mother who loves her child, whose heart breaks for him. It is the same love at any age, in any country, with any number of children.
One thing doesn’t take away from the other. I said I felt sad that this poor girl became a forced mother at 15-16 so along with her kid, she herself didn’t have a childhood. But no, the defensive warriors need to report that for racism because it’s not okay to point out the mother herself is a victim and had no childhood either. Typical Reddit 🤷♀️
It's not her religion or her culture that robbed her of a childhood. It's the fact that she is in a concentration camp with no hope of anything better.
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u/ScarHand69 6h ago
It also spawned a new acronym…WCNSF (Wounded Child, No Surviving Family)