The lasting social impact of violence
Like many of those injured during recent violence in Iraq, 16-year-old tuk-tuk driver Kadhim Dhaygham and his brother were the breadwinners for their family. Like many others, they began to work from an early age due to the same dire economic conditions that pushed them to protest.
On the afternoon of Sunday, October 27, after parking his tuk-tuk near al-Jumhouriyah bridge and trying to cross the street, a tear gas canister slammed into Kadhim’s leg.
“It was so powerful that after hitting the person in front of me, it hit my leg and then the guy behind me. I tried to get up on my feet and started crawling, then one guy carried me to a tuk-tuk,” he said.
The driver brought him to a hospital, and he was referred to another, where he underwent emergency surgery and had an external fixator applied to support his broken bones. Kadhim’s surgeon then referred him to the BMRC, where Kadhim says medical staff “brought life back” to his leg with immediate physiotherapy.
Despite the improvement in his condition, Khadim has begun to feel that he is “deprived of everything.” He feels bitter for not being able to see his friends more often or leave his house. He longs for normal life, enjoying outdoor dinners with friends and tuk-tuk rides in the city. Kadhim, who hails from a poor neighborhood in the eastern part of the Iraqi capital, cannot wait to get back to work and help his older brother provide for his family.
“The two of us are responsible for supporting our family,” he said. “We are like a pair of legs—if one of us falls, the other suffers too.”