The Unbelievable Suffering of a Widow in Iraq

Ummah Welfare Trust UK team’s eye witness account in Iraq

A few days before Umar RadhyAllahu ‘anh was assassinated, he said, ‘If I live a little longer I will not leave a single widow in Iraq in need of assistance.’

Today as I listened to the suffering of a widow in the same Iraq 1,400 years later, it made me realise how as an Ummah we have fallen from the prestigious position we once held.

It was our first day distributing cash grants of $500 to over a thousand families in the refugee camps in Erbil in Iraq.

After the first phase of the distribution, we went to see a widow to hear from her first hand about the challenges she has faced after losing her husband.

She told us that her husband was killed a few years ago and then her 3 months old child was shot dead.

After she left her home and settled in the camp she was cooking in the tent and it caught alight. Her six year old daughter was burnt severely and she passed away 45 days later.

She went on to say that since losing her husband and two children, the trauma was so severe that two of her remaining children had become mentally unstable.

We asked her how the $500 grant which she had been given today would help her?

To our surprise she replied that she was in debt and it would all be used to repay her debt. We decided to give her a further $200.

May Allah have mercy on this widow who lost her husband and two children, and now cares for two traumatised children.

The Iraq war have left Iraq with 1.5 million widows. May Allah assist them and ease their suffering.