Kids belong to everyone

I am reminded of an old Urdu phrase — bachay sab ke sanjhay hotay hain — loosely translated as kids belong to everyone. The innocence of young kids is something that is universally loved, and their infectious smile remains one of the most potent ways of uplifting us even in the most difficult circumstances. Just as their smile can elevate our spirits in an instant, their pain is equally devastating and goes deep in the soul. Images of kids who are tortured are among the most disturbing pictures one can imagine. Unfortunately, over the last several years, there are plenty of these harrowing pictures coming from Yemen.

The UN unequivocally calls the war in Yemen the worst humanitarian disaster of our time. The statistics, while staggering, do not do justice to the pain and suffering. The numbers mask the pain of each and every child who has suffered and died. In this day and age, when we know how to prevent cholera deaths, over 1.2 million have been affected by cholera in Yemen. About 30% of these are young, innocent children. Over the last two years, a part of my research effort has focused on improving the access to basic medical supplies to those who are most affected. I have spoken to, and worked with, dozens of incredibly brave and inspiring doctors, nurses, public health professionals and ordinary citizens who are risking their lives to save the innocent. Thousands of children have wasted away in front of parents, hospitals and clinics destroyed and water streams contaminated by bombs and sewage. The stories from the frontlines are painful and paint a picture of an unjust world, where the richest country of the region is attacking the poorest. Equally troubling is the side we have chosen to support.



Some may argue that this is some newly-found fascination. Let me remind that many of us have been writing about the atrocities in Yemen, and our collective silence for some time now. I first wrote about it in November 2017 in these pages — many of my colleagues even before that. It is not driven by an agenda, but a deeply-held belief that a war thrust upon innocent civilians — whether they are in Yemen, Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan — is immoral. What bothers me, and many others about the children in Yemen, is the same reason we find forced separations of young babies at the southern US border by the Trump administration morally repulsive and unimaginably cruel. Our silence on Yemen, and tacit or explicit support is actually an endorsement of the crimes against innocent people.

Some have argued that there is no morality, and it is all about self-interest. Shall we also extend this to individual choices? I recognise that I am privileged as a male, Sunni and Punjabi — does that mean that I have no responsibility towards those who are marginalised in society? Standing up for abused women and persecuted minorities is therefore a bad idea? Should the weakest in a society be left at the mercy of self-interest of the powerful?

I hope that we remember that friends do not let friends starve innocent children. Our destiny, they say, is in our hands. So is our dignity.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2019.

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