Speaking up for Syrian women and children
FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron said the missile strikes on Syria by his country, America and Britain had been “for the honour of the international community” following the gas attack on Douma.
US President Donald Trump even proclaimed: “Mission accomplished.” The statements came from two powerful men with the emotional intelligence of a brick!
The truth is: no one’s honour has been restored. And there’s certainly no mission accomplished when it comes to Syria, whose complex, multi-faceted war should be regarded as a stain on the face of humanity, and a prime example of the failure of the United Nations and the international community it represents.
I’m not speaking for or against the Assad regime, or their many allies and enemies, in a seven-year conflict in which there are no winners. I simply want to give voice to the 7000 women and up to 400 children, being held against their will, without charge or trial. It’s not only an international crime, but it is illegal in Syria itself.
Exposed daily to torture and rape, I doubt if they care that Monsieur Macron feels his honour has been restored by lobbing a few rockets on the Assad regime.
I am weary of powerful men in powerful places, like him, trampling over women and children caught up in their war games. A few weeks ago, I spoke to some Syrian women who could give world leaders a lesson in honour and humanity. The weasel words of these men remind me of the powerful, but softly spoken words of Noor, who stood in front of her tormentor in the notorious Branch 215 run by military intelligence in Damascus.
She told me how her “investigation” (a code word for rape and torture) was interrupted by a ringing telephone and she watched and listened with incredulity as the voice laughing and giggling down the line prompted her torturer to break into a warm smile, in seconds he softened the tone of his voice – for that is the effect most daughters have on their fathers.
The brutal monster before her morphed into a doting father. Her story serves as a reminder to us all today that the monsters who rape are also fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers and sons serving in Bashar Al-Assad’s prisons. Just let that sink in for a few moments because there are mass rapes, sexual assaults, punishment beatings and mental torture being inflicted on women daily by these men.
I met several other Syrian women like Noor, who ended up in the notorious Branch 215, or other equally terrifying prisons and ghost jails. In every encounter, the image of Bashar Al-Assad loomed large, either in portraits hanging on walls or on the T-shirts worn by the men responsible for the brutal rapes.
Yes, incredible as it may seem, those carrying out gang rapes wore T-shirts bearing the face of the president. “He is our god,” boasted one.
“I cannot remember the faces of the men who raped me, there were so many, but I remember seeing Assad’s face everywhere – on the walls, on the T-shirts. There was no escape from his gaze,” a victim told me.
“Some days, I manage to forget what happened to me,” she said, “and then suddenly, I’ll see someone sneer or curl their lip in a certain way, and it acts like a trigger; I’m back inside 215 suffering from a flashback, feeling terror and anxiety.” Three years on, she puts on a good face to the outside world, but in her darker moments, she’s plunged back into the stuff of nightmares.
Badria is still living the nightmare, five years after she and 40 women in Homs were arrested and taken to an apartment in the Syrian revolution’s fallen capital. Bound by her hands and feet, she was left hanging from a ceiling hook for hours while being beaten with a stick.
Hands shaking, she opened her mouth slowly before removing her dentures. Her teeth, top and bottom, had been shattered by the sticks swung hard, and with deliberate precision, across her face.
“I used to have full breasts,” she said as she lifted her shirt, “but now look.” Doctors have told her that the beatings were so severe that the breast tissue was destroyed and will probably never recover. In terms of dress size, she was probably a size 36 when she was arrested, but as she sat before me she looked more like a size 28, and so fragile I was afraid to give her a hug.
She told me how the women in her group were taken to a bedroom where they were raped and humiliated by two or more of the military intelligence officers. There, above the bed, staring down, were portraits of Assad and his brother, Maher. To the side of the bed was a small table, with various bottles of alcohol for the men to drink.
To combat their drunken state, explained Badria, they took drugs. After some research I concluded from the description given, the men were popping Viagra pills, and the orange Levitra, which works four times faster. This would enable them to maintain an erection for many hours in order to carry out their ‘work’.
The women were led to believe every sordid moment had been captured on film and would be shown to their families if they spoke out. Badria told me of one woman who was “gang-raped to death”, while another had simply lost her mind. Freedom for Badria came after her family paid a $17 000 ransom.
If she thought the nightmare would end then, though, she was wrong.
Her husband did not survive the military prison in Homs, where he was held. Witnesses told her that he died after having his eyes gouged out.
The Assad regime is not only abusing women on an industrial scale, it is also making money out of their misery.
So please, Mr Macron, don’t talk about honour. The women of Syria don’t want more of your bombs, they want justice.