Dima is a 6-year-old Iraqi girl living in Baghdad who was given a camera by Index on Censorship to take pictures of her life in Baghdad.

Her mother, Irada, who is a writer, was training a group of women in digital photography so that they could document their lives in the capital. Dima was taken along to these meetings and eventually asked if she too could have a camera.

"The most important thing in my life besides my mother and family, are my friends. I love them a lot. I play with them at home and go to the same school. I have two best friends - I love them and I play with them everyday - and I miss them. We only play inside my house. My mum never allows me to play on the street."

"My mum takes me to school and brings me back home because there is no school bus. We registered 5 times, but all the buses stopped coming... The fourth bus is packed with children, we're like sardines, everyone sitting on top of each other - because there aren't any school buses - but then now he's stopped coming too."

Dima's mother Irada who helped coordinate the project from Baghdad says that her nerves are always on edge. "The biggest problem for me is how to protect Dima from all danger," she said, "Yet at the same time give her space to live her childhood and go to school and live a normal life. I need to be with her all the time but I want her to maintain her individuality."

"Going to school is a big problem. Three explosions took place recently near the school, and all the doors and windows were smashed. The children were terrified and many of them fainted... There are only 5 students in Dima's school now because no one would dare send their children there. She lost her friends one after the other, because many of them were forced to leave."

"Amidst all this madness and violence I see this child trying to live her childhood and trying to take photos of happy things. She's trying to live a happy life in an unhappy situation. I look at her and think of the freedom I enjoyed as a child. Can you imagine Dima has never been to a theme park? The only time she went to a cinema was here in Damascus. Dima can't even stand at the doorstep without me. As children we used to walk to school, and now Dima dreams of walking to school with her friends."

Dima's photos are on show in Damascus alongside others taken by grown-ups in the same project. The photos were produced by Index on Censorship and funded by the United Nations Development Programme.