Page 44 - Shahrvand BC No.1251
P. 44
English Section
Syrian women who fled to Jordan tell of horrific 44
rapes back home
Sexual violence against Syrian women brings fearing shame and rejection. Few women and girls are Few women and girls are speaking out. In Jordan,
willing to admit they were raped in Syria’s civil war nearly every Syrian refugee has a story about rape
the v ast majority at the hands of the regime. Stories
that begin with the refrain ‘I heard’ are common. ‘I 1392 دادرم18 جمعه- 1251 شماره/ سال متسیب
h eard’ that girls are being dragged off the street by
the pro-regime shabiha thugs, drugged and raped. ‘I
h eard’ they are raping girls in prison cutting up their
bodies and sending them back to their families. It is
difficult to know how many are talking about their
own experiences but refusing to admit it.
Several factors may be conspiring to keep them
silent. Victims have no hope of getting justice,
there is little medical help available and the risk of
being cast out or even killed to protect the family’s
honour is high. Nour is telling her story because she
has nothing to lose. Her husband took their young
son to B ahrain. She is literally dead to her family.
“My family issued a death certificate for me. One
of my brothers did it,” she says.
HAMIDA GHAFOUR / TORONTO STAR “A woman should be pure like glass when she In touch with Iranian diversity
Nour, a Syrian refugee, says she was raped and tortured in a Damascus prison for 60 days by pro- marries,” Maram says. Maram, 42, grew up in
government guards and s oldiers. She is now in Amman, Jordan. Damascus and has lived in Jordan for nearly 30
years.
By: Hamida Ghafour Foreign Affairs reporter, The sanctity of a home in Arab culture is paramount
to the extent that it is taboo for a strange man to
Published on Sat Apr 06 2013 enter a room where there are women he is not
related to.
AMMAN, JORDAN—The cell was small with iron demonstrated support for the uprising. In the women’s quarters of Maram’s sister-in-law’s Vol. 20 / No. 1251 - Friday, Aug. 9, 2013
bars across the door. Three women, all naked, were International human rights groups are alarmed at the house in Amman, the women chat freely while she
c hained to each corner. Nour was stripped, taken to consistent reports of rape from refugees flooding explains the shame rape brings upon women. Even
the fourth, and handcuffed to the wall. into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Sexual violence here, away from the gaze and out of the earshot of
Every day, for more than 60 days, Nour says is increasingly a “weapon of war” in Syria and men, Maram cannot bring herself to say the word
she and the other prisoners were raped in one of perpetrated “by all sides,” senior UN official Erika ‘rape.’
Syria’s m ost notorious detention centres. Some of Feller told the world body’s Human Rights Council “It is too much of a bad thing, the worst that can
her attackers at the Palestine Branch of Military in Geneva in February. The charity International happen to a woman,” she says. “People say if she
Intelligence in Damascus were in uniform, others Rescue Committee recently warned in a report that could not defend herself she wanted this to happen.”
in civilian clothes. rape, or the fear of it, was the main reason why Maram is part of a small, informal network
“ They had visitors in the prison playing cards and families were fleeing the country. of middle-class Syrian housewives married to
they said in front of us, ‘if you want sex, there are However, the full scope of sexual violence is not businessmen long settled in Jordan, trying to
g irls here,’ ” she says. Two girls died in the cell, clear; whether it is a systematic policy of President comfort their distressed countrywomen by referring
she says. Bashar Assad’s regime or by the rebels to punish them to doctors or g iving them food.
Nour, which is not her real name, wrings her small pro-government supporters. One of the refugees she helped is Huda, a mother of
white hands constantly as she speaks, the only sign five girls who says she witnessed a terrifying scene
of distress as she recalls with precision o f mass rape which forced her to run from her home 44
and composure the assaults she suffered in Homs with her daughters.
between December 2011 and February “ I have not lied, not one word,” she begins. “They
2012. When her body was being violated are burned in my heart.”
she emptied her mind, she says. Her body In the first week of March 2012, she cannot
no longer belonged to her but she could try remember the precise day, her home in the Bab
to protect her soul. al Sabaa neighbourhood was hit by a missile and
“This war has taken me from one world to looted. She ran out of the house with her children
another life,” she says. “We have a saying and they took cover from snipers. On Adawiya St.,
that the wheel of life turns. But the wheel
turned over on me. I used to have a normal a column of 10 to 15 women
life.” were walking in front of
Her so-called crime was to take government tanks marked
photographs of protesters in Homs one with Bashar Assad’s name,
afternoon in November 2011, naively she says.
indulging a hobby that the authorities said “They (soldiers) raped them
in front of the tanks. They
made the women walk in
front of the tanks first to use
them as shields,” she says.
“They passed a resistance
area and then stripped them
and raped them and killed
them.”
Huda and three of her
daughters escaped through a
series of destroyed houses.
Syrian women who fled to Jordan tell of horrific 44
rapes back home
Sexual violence against Syrian women brings fearing shame and rejection. Few women and girls are Few women and girls are speaking out. In Jordan,
willing to admit they were raped in Syria’s civil war nearly every Syrian refugee has a story about rape
the v ast majority at the hands of the regime. Stories
that begin with the refrain ‘I heard’ are common. ‘I 1392 دادرم18 جمعه- 1251 شماره/ سال متسیب
h eard’ that girls are being dragged off the street by
the pro-regime shabiha thugs, drugged and raped. ‘I
h eard’ they are raping girls in prison cutting up their
bodies and sending them back to their families. It is
difficult to know how many are talking about their
own experiences but refusing to admit it.
Several factors may be conspiring to keep them
silent. Victims have no hope of getting justice,
there is little medical help available and the risk of
being cast out or even killed to protect the family’s
honour is high. Nour is telling her story because she
has nothing to lose. Her husband took their young
son to B ahrain. She is literally dead to her family.
“My family issued a death certificate for me. One
of my brothers did it,” she says.
HAMIDA GHAFOUR / TORONTO STAR “A woman should be pure like glass when she In touch with Iranian diversity
Nour, a Syrian refugee, says she was raped and tortured in a Damascus prison for 60 days by pro- marries,” Maram says. Maram, 42, grew up in
government guards and s oldiers. She is now in Amman, Jordan. Damascus and has lived in Jordan for nearly 30
years.
By: Hamida Ghafour Foreign Affairs reporter, The sanctity of a home in Arab culture is paramount
to the extent that it is taboo for a strange man to
Published on Sat Apr 06 2013 enter a room where there are women he is not
related to.
AMMAN, JORDAN—The cell was small with iron demonstrated support for the uprising. In the women’s quarters of Maram’s sister-in-law’s Vol. 20 / No. 1251 - Friday, Aug. 9, 2013
bars across the door. Three women, all naked, were International human rights groups are alarmed at the house in Amman, the women chat freely while she
c hained to each corner. Nour was stripped, taken to consistent reports of rape from refugees flooding explains the shame rape brings upon women. Even
the fourth, and handcuffed to the wall. into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Sexual violence here, away from the gaze and out of the earshot of
Every day, for more than 60 days, Nour says is increasingly a “weapon of war” in Syria and men, Maram cannot bring herself to say the word
she and the other prisoners were raped in one of perpetrated “by all sides,” senior UN official Erika ‘rape.’
Syria’s m ost notorious detention centres. Some of Feller told the world body’s Human Rights Council “It is too much of a bad thing, the worst that can
her attackers at the Palestine Branch of Military in Geneva in February. The charity International happen to a woman,” she says. “People say if she
Intelligence in Damascus were in uniform, others Rescue Committee recently warned in a report that could not defend herself she wanted this to happen.”
in civilian clothes. rape, or the fear of it, was the main reason why Maram is part of a small, informal network
“ They had visitors in the prison playing cards and families were fleeing the country. of middle-class Syrian housewives married to
they said in front of us, ‘if you want sex, there are However, the full scope of sexual violence is not businessmen long settled in Jordan, trying to
g irls here,’ ” she says. Two girls died in the cell, clear; whether it is a systematic policy of President comfort their distressed countrywomen by referring
she says. Bashar Assad’s regime or by the rebels to punish them to doctors or g iving them food.
Nour, which is not her real name, wrings her small pro-government supporters. One of the refugees she helped is Huda, a mother of
white hands constantly as she speaks, the only sign five girls who says she witnessed a terrifying scene
of distress as she recalls with precision o f mass rape which forced her to run from her home 44
and composure the assaults she suffered in Homs with her daughters.
between December 2011 and February “ I have not lied, not one word,” she begins. “They
2012. When her body was being violated are burned in my heart.”
she emptied her mind, she says. Her body In the first week of March 2012, she cannot
no longer belonged to her but she could try remember the precise day, her home in the Bab
to protect her soul. al Sabaa neighbourhood was hit by a missile and
“This war has taken me from one world to looted. She ran out of the house with her children
another life,” she says. “We have a saying and they took cover from snipers. On Adawiya St.,
that the wheel of life turns. But the wheel
turned over on me. I used to have a normal a column of 10 to 15 women
life.” were walking in front of
Her so-called crime was to take government tanks marked
photographs of protesters in Homs one with Bashar Assad’s name,
afternoon in November 2011, naively she says.
indulging a hobby that the authorities said “They (soldiers) raped them
in front of the tanks. They
made the women walk in
front of the tanks first to use
them as shields,” she says.
“They passed a resistance
area and then stripped them
and raped them and killed
them.”
Huda and three of her
daughters escaped through a
series of destroyed houses.
