Fotografen Pieter ten Hoopens skildring av sitt möte med kvinnorna i Damaskus belönades nyligen med priset Årets bildreportage utland i tävlingen Årets Bild.
TWO WOMEN´S EXECUTION
”Hon kommer från Irak. Hennes man dog i kriget men hon har inga papper på det och får inte ersättning från FN:s flyktingsfond. Sängen hon sitter på finns i Damaskus, dit hon flydde undan våldet. I början städade hon på hotell. Någon berättade att hon skulle tjäna mer pengar om hon sålde sin kropp. Så hon är prostituerad. Nätterna igenom dansar hon på en nattklubb i stadsdelen Garamana för att locka någon man att köpa sex. När morgonen kommer får hon sova.” SYDSVENSKAN/ lördag 13 mars 2010
They gathered there,
men and monsters
Thousands of thousands
To watch two women´s execution.
They were there,
those alive and those dead
Thousands of thousands
To watch the execution of two girls
To carry out the execution of two prostituted girls.
The guards, the men of God, the mullahs
Men with beards, the murderers
All were there to curry out the execution of two girls.
My town cried that day
Sky´s tears fell on my cheeks
The sky was sad, too.
The girls were taken to the square
By armed guards.
Men mumbled to each other
And I stared at the gallows
Men and monsters
Cried and laughed
Those dead and those alive
All were there
To curry out the execution of two girls
To watch the execution of two girls.
Nineteen and twenty-one years old
With beautiful faces covered by the fear of death.
Their crime:
Stealing clothes
Stealing foods
And prostitution.
The murderers tied their chadors
Around their bodies
And hang them one by one.
Their bodies, trembled all over on the gallows
Their eyes full of fear in the presence of the death
And their hope and attempt in vain.
The guards, into lines, cold formed,
Like chess soldiers
Under the greatness of the colored flags´ dance
And the vampires´ joyfulness screams
And before the eyes of blood-crying people
Under the sky´s tears.
It´s impossible to escape death.
Hungry people and naked bodies
In poverty´s and misery´s territory
Hang on the gallows.
Yes, it is impossible to escape death.
ON WHICH SIN DO YOU JUDGE
THOSE WHO WISH TO HAVE A NEW SKIRT?
ON WHICH SIN DO YOU JUDGE
THOSE WHO ARE HUNGRY
AND HAVE NOTHING ELSE
THAN THEIR BODIES TO SELL?
Those dead were pleased because
However ones again God´s command
Was carried out.
Those alive cried like rain.
And my town cried
For the death of those two girls in
Forty days.
© Samuel E. Rajeus, S.E.R.P. & PUBLISHING, Stockholm, Sweden, 1991
Book: I Språkets Hus, Publicerad oktober 2011, ISBN: 978-91-979269-2-8, Sida: 244
Book ”Shadows, collections of poems” / ISBN 978-91-977393-1-3