“Gaining new ears and gladness”

Punitive ear amputation was a method of torture systematically used in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Sometimes performed without anaesthesia, this particular kind of torture, mainly used against army defectors, inflicted extreme pain on the victims.

As part of a project to reach out to Iraqi torture survivors, the IRCT assisted in training surgeons and nurses in Iraq in reconstructive ear surgery. Here, a beneficiary of the surgery tells his story.

On 25 August 1994 the Iraqi government issued Decree 115, which stated that people who had refused to collaborate with the Iraqi military in the war against Iran and Kuwait would have their ears amputated.

Doctors, who were to decide if the entire ear or part of it should be cut off, would carry out the amputation. We were then arrested and beat and the day after we were taken to a hospital where our ears were cut off. Those who ran away twice from the military service had both their ears amputated, as happened with my friend.

We were kept in detention for six months. We were refused medicine and had to pay for drinking water. No doctors came to see us and the beatings continued.

Many people lost their lives on that occasion. I remember that a man from Zubair, who used to curse the government, was beaten and refused water. He was then hung on a window an entire night. In the morning I tried to give him water but when I touched him I found that he was dead. His ears also had been amputated.

We are very thankful and happy with the project carried out by the IRCT for reconstructive surgery. This is not only about us, the victims of ear amputations in Basra. This project is also making our families happy.

We are not only gaining new ears but also gladness. With the surgery, I will be able to walk the streets without being pointed at as one of those whose ears were cut off by Saddam Hussein.