Without joy

By Naguib Mahfouz

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I am saddened when I think of the ordeals faced by Palestinian children, and especially during the Eid. They hear nothing but gunfire, nothing but the wails of their dying compatriots. In my own childhood the Eid was synonymous with joy. The year's pleasures were concentrated in the few days of the Eid and its symbols -- kahk, outings, holiday, new clothes -- spoke of happy times.

Palestinian children know little of such happiness, a deprivation they now share with the children of Iraq. And everywhere echoes to the sounds of explosions, from Saudi Arabia to Turkey. The Eid arrives this year stripped of happiness.

I fear not just for the innocence of childhood but for childhood itself. There is no pleasure anymore in receiving eidiya; rather childhood has been deformed to the extent that even children seek revenge. What pleasure in sporting new clothes when the desire is to become a human bomb. Children who have known only such Eids are children who have never experienced joy.

* Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.