I Grew Up in Guantanamo: Now That You Have Heard My Story, You Cannot Turn Away [View all]

[babylonsister]

Fahd Ghazy
Detainee, Guantánamo Bay

I Grew Up in Guantanamo: Now That You Have Heard My Story, You Cannot Turn Away
Posted: 12/09/2014 2:23 pm EST Updated: 12/09/2014 2:59 pm EST

Fahd Ghazy has been illegally detained at Guantánamo since he was 17. He is now 30 years old. He has been cleared for release since 2007. He is represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights.


To begin, please forgive me for not saying the right things or making the right points. There are different cultures between us and many different experiences.

It hurts me that I do not have the privilege to express myself. I want to have the honor to speak out in my own voice and reach you directly -- you who are thinking people. I want to say thank you for caring. You are willing to view me as a human being and that is something so precious to me.

My exposure to the world came through Guantanamo. I was 17 when they sent me here. At that time, I had rarely seen a television or heard a radio. Every significant event in my life, from funerals, to my own wedding, to the birth of my beloved daughter, Hafsa, happened in the Diwan of my own home. Now I am almost 31.

That means I grew up in Guantanamo. I grew up in this system. I grew up in fear. I hope that helps you to understand me.

I hope I will be heard.

Here, at Guantanamo, I am never heard. I am only ignored. In 13 years of imprisonment without charge, I've never been able to tell anyone who I really am.

I am not ISN 026. That is the government's number.

My name is Fahd Abdullah Ahmed Ghazy. I am a human being -- a man -- who is loved and who loves.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fahd-ghazy/i-grew-up-in-guantanamo-n_b_6296504.html