“Ghada Mohammed” .. In my jail something has broken

Story Nom. 2
#Survivors_or_not_ yet
From Batoul Ali
Editing: Lana Haj Hassan
Deir Al Zour

When she began to tell her story, the rattle of her voice beat her sad words. She seemed hopeless, brokenand alone in a society where the female holds all the calamities of the universe, including “Adam’s exit from paradise.” Today, Ghada lives with her husband in an old, tired house, similar to that of the young couple, without the joy of life.

Ghada Mohammed, a 25-year-old resident displaced from Deir Al-Zour, lives in the city of Al-Tabqqa in the governorate of Raqqa. She tells us the story of her painful arrest in Da’ash prison.
The story begins by saying:
In Ramadan 2015 I went out to the market to buy some widgets as I was pregnant with my first child.
In the market, one of ISIS elements stopped me ,pretending the violation of legitimate Islamic dress because I was not covering my eyes, I did not stop and tried to escape from him but hit me with a wooden stick was carrying, on my stomach, I felt great pain , it did not stop on this only where he called some ISIS women to arrest me and put me in jail.

I entered prison and I was in a pitiful state. I felt a great pain and a state of vertigo but no one noticed me.

No one came to me until the Pray of Maghrib, One of the elements of the organization gave me water and some of dates for breakfast because we were in the month of Ramadan.
Then one of them took my husband’s number and told him that I was in prison to pay a fine for violating the Islamic dress.

I waited until the next day but to no avail my husband did not come. During my time in jail, they gave me some religious lessons in an attempt to convince me of jihadist ideas, such as committing to wearing the Islamic dress, wearing a loose veil, wearing niqab and not going out without a mahram, and it is our duty to fight for the sake of Allah.

“When I was in prison, my condition worsened after a blow of the stick in the market and I was afraid of my fate in their prisons. I started screaming after my pain. They took me to the hospital and the result was tragic for me. I lost my child and they left me in the hospital without telling my family.

Then the doctor called my family and told them where I was. They came and took me out and went back to my husband’s house.

“I did not blame my husband for not coming to get me out of jail because I know the consequences and results of coming to them,” says Ghada. “In contrast, my husband did not blame me for what happened to me. I did not have enough of what happened to me, but the whole society blamed me as if I committed sin.

Ghada now lives with her husband without children several years after this incident. She does not have a pregnancy and works in a clothing shop in the market to fill her spare time and help her husband with life.