Word: tor
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Rahmat Hussain, 10, is not the only child on the floor, but he is the most seriously injured. Most of the time, the bandaged wound is covered by a thin, dirty green blanket. With a tentative smile, as if offering a guest a cup of tea, his older brother, Tor Kham, volunteers to pull back the blanket...
...Tor Kham has been sleeping on the floor next to his brother's bed, waiting, watching and helping the nurses clean the wound twice a day. It is a task he dreads. Tor Kham and the nurse have to tie Rahmat Hussain's wrists to the bedpost with strips of gauze to keep him from reaching down while they remove the bandages. All the skin has been torn from Rahmat Hussain's inner thighs and groin to his stomach, and the pink, raw flesh forms a vast inverted horseshoe two inches deep -- as if he had mounted a burning saddle...
...takes more than half an hour to peel off the gauze, dab antiseptic on the livid flesh, and replace the bandages. Tor Kham, who never says a word, grows paler. When the procedure is over, he takes a moment, really no more than a deep breath, then places a hand on the boy's lips to silence him. His hand falls to the boy's chest and lingers there, an offer of consolation. After another nurse arrives and administers morphine, the boy drifts to sleep. His brother pulls the blanket back over his bandages...
...Tor Kham explains that he will go back to jihad once his brother recovers. And Rahmat Hussain? He too will want to return to the fight, Tor Kham says. Asked how he knows that, Tor Kham shakes his head. After a long silence, he looks away and says, "There is no jihad for him now. He is in the world of pain...