Iraqi Girl Escapes Harsh Reality in Virtual World
By Shawn on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 8:51 PM PST In Computer, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games
Fourteen year old Wurud is much like any other teenage girl. However, living in the Green Zone of Baghdad with her family has matured her beyond her years as she faces the harsh reality of war everyday.
“When a bomb blows or something explodes, you know, I just keep on sitting here. I don’t move.”
“It’s a big jail,” she says. [In nightmares] “I always see myself running, dying.”
Wurud finds respite from the pressure and stress of daily life in Baghdad with online friends from all over the globe on Zwinky.
“And look — this is Zwinky World,” she says, referring to an online virtual reality world similar to Second Life. “And that’s me,” she says, pointing to her gothic avatar…
In Zwinky World, Wurud says she can escape the war all around her. She likes to shop at the virtual mall for T-shirts, dresses, shoes — “Everything,” she says. “That’s so fun!”
Although I know my children have enjoyed Zwinky, as an information security specialist I’ve had to ban the site from our household and can’t recommend it. The downloads associated with the site carry adware and spyware that will bog your system down and some programs that may be a threat to your data. Unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon with popular social networking sites. If you choose join in the 3D chat and games; do so with caution.
via CNN
Poor girl, she’ll be recruited as a terrorist soon enough I bet.
As someone that lived in the IZ for the past 4 years, I can tell your that she likely already is. We had a 10yr old (estimated) boy throw a grenade at a doorway in the IZ. Dumb fucker knew to pull the pin but didnt know about the spoon clip. His father put him up to it and was a driver of our fuel trucks there. go figure.
Strange, its hard for me to imagine such mundane things as children playing computer games in iraq. I’m not that up on Muslim culture or Iraq culture but I was suprised she shows her face, I thought women had to wear veils over there. Also 14, young here but again probably marrying age over there.
As for her being a terrorist, guys I’m sure some terrible things happen over there, but not everyone in the country feels the same way. Look beyond the nationality and the skin colour. Some people just want to have a life.
Shut it, Bounce, you’ve got no clue what so ever. Not every Iraqi civilian is jumping at the chance to become a terrorist or insurgent.