A Portrait of Iraq's Aaras Island
Tooth Decay
Boys show their lackluster oral health from within their plywood Aaras Island home on Monday, July 6, 2009. Ali, 7, right, was born without teeth; Ayne, 9, is losing his. Both displaced children have lived most of their lives in a plywood shack on Aaras Island. Hundreds have taken shelter on the Tigris River island that has remained relatively safe throughout the war. Clean water and electricity are still at a premium there.
Displaced Kids
A displaced Sudanese boy poses for a photo with a displaced Iraqi boy on Aaras Island on Monday, June 1, 2009. The Island near Baghdad has become refuge for displaced families of both sects -- Sunni and Shi'a -- as well as much of the capital's Sudanese population, who sought asylum during the civil war in Sudan in the 1990s.
Football Fever
Hamed Faher, 8, juggles a football near his family's makeshift dwelling underneath the Jahadriyah Bridge in Baghdad on Aaras Island on Sunday, June 14, 2009. The Iraqi national football team played South Africa this evening. The displaced families living under the bridge have been gripped by football-fever since sunrise.
Aaras Kids 20
Girls from Klef family wash themselves at the outdoor faucet within the walls of their mud-brick compound on Aaras Island on Sunday, May 24, 2009. The island consists of about 70 ethnically-mixed families, both Sunni and Shi'a, who were displaced by war violence. They have farmed their own food and coexisted in harmony, steadily growing in number since 2003.
Nasreen
Nasreen Abdullah, 37, shows a photo of her family home after it was burned by Shi'a militia members in 2004 on Aaras Island on Monday, July 6, 2009. She has since lived in the plywood shack behind her with seven other members of her extended family.
Shepherd 2
A shepherd on Aaras Island, and one of his sheep, freeze after hearing a loud boom from nearby Baghdad while a plume of smoke rises upward on Wednesday, June 17, 2009. Throughout the day the boom and whistle sounds of mortars from the capital could be heard on the island.
Aaras Panorama
Thassen Klef, left, shares Aaras Island's northern embankment with another smoker on Sunday, May 24, 2009. The island is home to 70 families from both sects, both Sunni and Shi'a, as well as Iranians, Sudanese and Turkmenites who were displaced by war violence. They have farmed their own food and coexisted in harmony, steadily growing in number since 2003.
Displaced 13
Shi'a men displaced by war violence sleep in an abandoned office building on Aaras Island on Thursday, June 4, 2009. The island is home to 70 squatter families, both Sunni and Shi'a, as well as Iranians, Sudanese and Turkmenites who were displaced. Residents began farming their own food and guarding the island's borders in 2003.
Aaras Kids 42
A young man patrols with a rifle on Aaras Island in Baghdad on Sunday, June 14, 2009. The displaced families that inhabit the island occasionally burn garbage at night for fun and protection. The ethnically-mixed inhabitants have kept the tiny Tigris River island a safe haven from war violence by using the elder males as police and the children as eyes and ears.
Displaced 9
A boy on Aaras Island carries reeds from the Tigris River to patch a roof, while a plume of smoke rises from nearby Baghdad on Monday, June 15, 2009. Throughout the day, the booms and the whistle sounds of mortars from the capital could be heard on the island.
Aziz, Zade and the Goat
Young Aziz, pictured at left in the second photo, watches older brother Zade handle a goat on Aaras Island on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. I returned later to see that Aziz had not exactly learned the trade. The goat had taken over the kitchen.
Displaced 81
The 14 members of the Abdullah family pose in front of their home on Aaras Island on Thursday, July 23, 2009. All 14 of them share the single-room home. Individual sleeping pads are laid out on the floor every night and tucked away in the morning.
