The following is an interview with Tasneem Husseini, a mother and housewife in Northern California who visited Iraq last year and saw first-hand the horrors that our brothers and sisters are experiencing as a direct result of the sanctions.

Interview conducted by Roomina Khan

R.K.: How did you come across the opportunity to go to Iraq?

T.H.: About one year ago, I attended a function at which Denis Halliday made an appearance. Halliday is the former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and the Coordinator of Humanitarian Relief Program in Iraq. At this function, Halliday stirred up emotions while presenting some shocking facts. It was here that I heard of a trip that was being put together by the International Action Center (IAC), and signed up for the unforgettable three days. The group included 60 other people, five of whom were Muslims. We flew to New York, where there was an orientation for the program. From New York, we headed to Oman because we weren't allowed to land in Baghdad. In order to reach Baghdad, we took a 20-hour bus ride, prepared for the worst. Nothing, however, could prepare us for what we saw.

R.K.: And what did you see when you arrived in Iraq?

T.H.: Iraq was once known as an extremely wealthy country. There was free healthcare for everyone, a concept that is unfamiliar to the United States even today. ALong with healthcare, education used to be free. But what we saw indicated nothing of Iraq's rich history. Our group went to visit the Amaraya Bombshelter, which was transformed into a memorial of sorts. Two bombs had been dropped there, where 1,200 women and children had taken shelter. We left the shelter feeling very disturbed. We had seen actual melted human skin stuck to a wall due to the excess amount of heat from a bomb dropping.

R.K.: What was the purpose of the IAC trip?

T.H.: We were to take $2,000,000 worth of medicine to the hospitals, which are in very bad shape in Iraq. The intensive care units have no machines, not even thermometers, which are so taken for granted in American households. Many Iraqi children aren't dying as a result of direct impact from the bombings, but rather from a lack of medicine. They do not hae medicine for diarrhea, nor do they have any vaccinations for illnesses such as the measles, mumps, or cholera. Most of these illnesses are aused by unsanitary water because chlorine is a sanctioned item (chlorine is used to clean water but can also be used in bomb-making). Many Iraqi parents are afraid to have children because of birth defects that may occur in their babies. Marasmus and Kwashiorkor are two common diseases in Iraq; bodies of children simply waste away due to a lack of proper nutrition.

R.K.: How did you spend your three days in Baghdad and how did the Iraqis react to the group's presence?

T.H.: We had packed scheduless in which we visited masajid (Muslim places of worship), hospitals, and shelters. When we visited schools, some children were extremely fearful upon hearing that "Americans" were oming to see them. Some asked heart-wrenching questions like, "Why does your government want to kill us?" Others asked, "Why don't they give us food?" The children didn't have pencils due to the fact that graphite is a sanctioned item, and when we gave them some, it was if they had found a buried treasure. If these were our children, what would our feelings be towards the government that is controlling their well-being?

R.K.: What can we do as Muslims in America?

T.H.: When we sit at home and turn on our televisions for the latest news, many of us are under the false impression that we really are heaing the news from "sea to sea, corner to corner, from all parts of the world." Unfortunately, the American media has done a great injustice in not reporting the situation in Iraq. THey are not showing the 88,500 tons of bombs (equal to seven and a half atombic bombs) being dropped on Iraq. They don't report the 676 schools that have been bombed by the British or the horrying figure of 170 people dying every day. A whole country is being wiped out right from under our noses and the media has not thought it important enough to mention. We have to educate Americans, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and make them question: if politics is the basis for the sanctions and the prime target is Saddam Hussein, why is the entire nation suffering because of just one person who doesn't even feel the sanctions' effects?