Spikes & Poison

Spikes & Poison •

Matthias and Lucian, and the flowers that express them. Well, at least some of them!

Hello,,

My name is Fatima Alanqar, I am 30 years old, and my husband Bilal Dader is 33. We are parents to five children: Yazan (12), Fadl (11), Zina (10), Rajaa (7), and our baby girl Basma, who is just a year and a half old.

My lovely family

gofundme.com

Donate to Support Fatima's Family in Gaza After Heartbreaking Tragedy, organized by Fatima Alanqar

Hello,, My name is Fatima Alanqar, I am 30 years old, an… Fatima Alanqar needs your support for Support Fatima's Family in Gaza After H

We live in Tal AlHawa, Gaza. In the early days of the war, we were forced to flee our home after it was completely destroyed by occupation forces with fire and missiles. Our car was also burned down to a heap of metal, and all our clothes were burned too. We have been displaced 17 times, each time escaping death by a miracle. We walked long distances on foot with our children who struggled to keep up, driven by fear to escape danger.

After years of effort and construction for our house, then one day and one night everything vanished

My children's mental health has been shattered. They have suffered immensely from fear, displacement, and homelessness, with barely enough food and water to feed a small cat. They have endured carrying water over long distances throughout the day, surrounded by destruction, rockets, and shrapnel. They were deprived of continuing their education, despite being top students.

One of those times when we had to sleep in our previously destroyed house, a missile landed on us and, by God’s grace, it did not explode.

My children have been deprived of the food they love and need for their bodies and minds to grow, enduring constant fear and terror day and night for 10 months without any peace or rest. We also contracted many diseases, including hepatitis and skin infections due to the lack of water and hygiene supplies in overcrowded shelters and sometimes in our destroyed home :( . We were also forced to stay completely still for periods ranging from 3 to 7 days due to the ongoing siege, drinking contaminated water out of fear of the tanks around us.

Our car was not spared from the bombing either

The children's rooms were completely burned...

Some members of my family were martyred, and others were injured. Fear, crying, and sadness fill the place.

We once had all the comforts and basic tools for a decent life, but now we have lost everything. We cook our food over open fires despite the exhaustion and heat, and we barely manage to get flour, water, and firewood. Yet we remain resilient in northern Gaza despite the bombing, hunger, and severe shortages of water, medicine, and necessary supplies.

And now, that's all we have

I was even forced to wean my year-and-a-half-old daughter due to the lack of milk :( .

We are displaced and homeless, continuously moving from one place to another until this dreadful war ends.

My heart breaks for her.... :

We are in desperate need of your help. We invite you to contribute to this fund to save my family and provide us with a safe shelter, food, water, and healthcare for all of us. Please share our story with your friends and family to raise awareness and support. Your words and prayers give us the strength to endure these difficult circumstances.

Your donation, no matter how small, can make a big difference in our lives. We rely on your support and standing by us during this tough time. Together, we can restore hope and safety for Fatima and her family.

gofundme.com

Donate to Support Fatima's Family in Gaza After Heartbreaking Tragedy, organized by Fatima Alanqar

Hello,, My name is Fatima Alanqar, I am 30 years old, an… Fatima Alanqar needs your support for Support Fatima's Family in Gaza After H

With deepest gratitude from your faithful friend,

Fatima and Family

This was published weeks ago, yet I haven't seen a single mainstream news source covering this massive scandal. Read the full article here: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/trans-youth-suicides-covered-up-by

"One of the things about being born with genitals that challenge what is considered normal, is that no one ever tells you that there is anyone like you. You feel completely and utterly alone. Even today, young children are never put in touch with others who are going through the same thing. You are purposely isolated, your difference covered up — and it is horrible.

One day, I met with my writing teacher at her house. Next to my place at the table was a newsletter. Hermaphrodites with Attitude was written across the top. Upon seeing that word, which still had the power to terrify me, written so bold, so proud, I became suddenly unable to speak, even to breathe. Reading the text, I found my story in other people’s words. People I did not even know existed. It was as if my whole life had been lived to reach just this one moment. I took the newsletter home, and for days and days would pick it up in disbelief and hold it to my chest like a talisman.

And so it started, the strength that comes from finding those like you. The words that used to frighten me, make my skin crawl, like gender and hermaphrodite, roll off my tongue easier now. They are beginning to belong to me. I will never find the words of my six-year old self, and that is fitting. Today I have the reasoned and educated voice of a grown woman who knows harm when she sees it and is increasingly growing strong enough to name it and try to stop it. Saying this does not mean I am always brave, because I’m not. Speaking out as an intersexual, as a hermaphrodite, I go forward, but I also still retreat to protect myself. At one moment I may tell a friend my story, talk knowledgeably about it on the phone with a stranger. But then the subject comes up in a room full of people, and I speak in generalities, as if it were something that happens to other people. And I feel that silence between my legs, the place that sets me and my past apart from most other women. But I’m kind to myself when I can’t quite tell the whole truth, as all intersexuals should be. We have lifetimes of shame to overcome and, for most of us, this has been a secret that we have guarded with our lives and at great expense. Coming out as a hermaphrodite has its own precious timing. You can’t peel the chrysalis off a butterfly and expect it to survive any more than we can speak out, or even face our own truth, before we are ready.

If you are intersexed, listen to your heart — slowly you will emerge. It takes commitment and courage, it is frightening, but not nearly as frightening as that monster you created all those years out of your own sweet body. As you tell your story, and tell it again and again, a sort of transformation takes place. You start to speak for all intersex people who have ever lived and are yet to be born. Your intensely personal story drops into the background, and what comes forward is your story as myth, as a kind of transcendent truth. Try to love yourself enough to free your hermaphroditic voice, so we can all claim our lives, and the bodies we deserve to celebrate."

-Finding the Words, Martha Coventry, Chrysalis #12, 1998.

absolutely insane with and without context. i think it might actually be wilder with context