MAYA GEBEILY

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Pompeo in surprise visit to Iraq amid ‘imminent’ Iran threats | AFP

May 7, 2019May 8, 2019 / Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

[Published here on May 7, 2019]

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq has promised to guarantee the safety of US interests from Iran, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday as he paid a surprise trip to Baghdad where he accused Tehran of planning “imminent” attacks.

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This was Winny's first tattoo. She doesn't remember how old she was when she got it, but she does remember it saved her life. Japanese forces had invaded the Dutch East Indies, including her home island of Sumba, in 1942 to position themselves for an attack on Australia. Troops began visiting villages across the island to abduct girls as "comfort women," forcing them into the notorious system of militarized sexual slavery. Fearing Winny would be abducted, her family tattooed her forearm to convince Japanese troops she was married. The symbol indicates adulthood or a sort of "coming of age," and it somehow managed to prevent Japanese forces from abducting her. Around 200,000 women are estimated to have been forced into the system across Asian territories occupied by Japan, but testimonies of survivors - including thousands of Indonesian women - only began resonating publicly in the 1990s. Winny shared her narrow miss with @seuct and I on the bamboo porch of her husband's home in the village of Wee Leo on Sumba, as her grandchildren played nearby. #travel #history #survivors

The crater lake at Mt. Rinjani, simultaneously lit by the sun rising to the east and the full moon disappearing behind the ridges to the west. Pure, spectacular magic. I feel it's important to add that this is as far as our group - the only ones on the mountain - could reach, as trails to the summit and the crater lake are yet to reopen following last year's deadly back-to-back earthquakes on Lombok. The resulting landslides literally defaced Mt. Rinjani and gutted the tourism sector at Sembalun. Porters and guides are scraping together what they can from the few hikers doing part of the route, or have switched to farming until trails fully reopen. We were awed not only by the breathtaking views shown above, but the admirable determination of those we met. A big thank you to @seuct, our guide Ubun, and the pair of ferocious porters.

A rare moment of quiet play between Alaa, 28, and her five-year-old son Methaq. Their afternoons are usually spent calming Methaq's seizures, or treating the bloody nose he gets from falling in the street, or finding out which neighborhood child bullied him for still not being able to speak. Methaq has both epilepsy and autism, but his family has been unable to properly treat him. Born under the Islamic State group's now-defunct "caliphate," he cannot access government schools or welfare because he lacks a state-issued Iraqi birth certificate. More on how being undocumented is affecting #Iraq's sick children in our new AFP story - link in bio, with major thanks to @nrc_middleeast. #health #protection #childhood

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