“R. Abdel Salam” … Cigarettes were the reason and society rejects me again

Story No. 5
Survivors or not yet
Taa_Marbouta
#Manbij #Syria
From: Ahmed Damlakhi
Editing: Lana Haj Hasan

She didn’t think that a pack of cigarette will have such problems, when she first got it from her 40 year old female neighbor. Her story seemed as a novel which has been a film and shown on TV.
“R. Abdel Salam’ one of the women of the city of Manbij, is 45 year old, was captured by ISIS because of a pack of cigarette she had with her and the time of arresting was for nearly a week
The story begins by saying:
During the period of ISIS in Manbij, tobacco was lost and dangerous commodity in the hand of men or women. It had a costly price, I often went to the smokers’ neighborhood ( A popular neighborhood in Manbij west of the Municipal stadium) , where there was a dressmaker, through her I bring packs of cigarette to not raise suspicions, and during my walk around the market I hid the packets inside my clothes and I continued like this for approx. one year and half.
One day while I was in the covered market, my little son wanted to buy a toy, while I was paying to the vendor a packet was fallen down from my cloth and there was a member of al Hesba near there, who at once picked it up. He started to launch bad words like slut and disobedient who doesn’t fear of god. What’s this Munkar?.
Those insults were adequate to know that I had a complicated problem which I wouldn’t be able to come out of it. I tried to deny being fallen from me, but useless. The women of al Hesba came to the area at the entrance of the covered market very quickly. But the owner of the toys cart confirmed to them it was fallen from me.
In al-Hesba jail, the chief ordered to be jailed in a women’s prison for 15 days with Closed Sharia Course. A the beginning I asked them to take my son home, but rejected and said they will take him back, and I was transferred to the women jail in Al Sirb neighborhood.there, all the sufferings which nobody can think about started.

About the prison and the Sharia course that she had ,”Abdul Salam” said at the first moments of my arrival , my thought was all in my child , whom I left with them and told me he is back at home. My husband was there and trying to talk to the chief about my arrest. I felt a great comfort but not for a long time. After a while of that day, A group of women came to the dorm I was jailed in, that time we were nearly 20 women. Started to separate us to groups, the group who put cosmetic , the group who violated the legal clothes, group of those who travelled without Muharram and my group of smokers. Four women went out for smoking, and then we went to the second dormitory.

There, one of the women , who separated us, asked about (who is God, who is the Prophet, how many rak’ahs per pray and how to perform ablution, …. ) with each wrong answer, she was lashing who answered wrong with a green plastic pipe with shining metal piece inside with length of about one meter.

I wasn’t survived from beating like the other women in the dormitory, there were too many questions and the tension prevailed in the room made them all frightened. This woman, after the session, gave us booklets contain group of Hadiths and Quran Verses and asked us to keep them and the Sharia Course will be about them.

We began to keep and memorize this booklet, after al Fajir pray she returned again but not holding the plastic pipe, She started to ask randomly. At the beginning she asked from the booklet but changed the questions into the holly Quran, Hadiths and The rulings of jihad and its purpose.
The punishment on the first false answer was enough to forget your name not just information you have memorized or kept after a while. She attacked who answered wrong and torn her dress in the breast area and started to bite her, at the beginning I thought it’s a human normal bite by teeth, but when she started bleeding, I looked at the woman of ISIS to see that she put metal teeth and her mouth full of blood. She targeted the bite on the breast and neck areas of the jailed woman. At the end I made mistakes in answering, so I wasn’t survived from such punishment as well.
Days were passing as years, where it was ending with a brutal manner of torture, such as biting, beating and pouring cold water, followed by a whip or any other instrument.
After the end of the period of the Course which was a long a week, I went back home. As I entered the house I fell down because of fatigue and lack of sleep I suffered from.
My husband started to beat and insult me that I brought him shame with this conduct, continued beating nearly an hour, but I lost consciousness after the forth blow.
I woke up the next day to see my husband’s sister beside me, started to ask about what happened to me inside and that after my return, my husband beat me and lost consciousness and one of the nurses came to treat me in the home and that my husband repented on what happened because of the view of bruises on my body where the torturing signs were visible for a week.
Her speech made me feel comfortable; she is the only one who understood my sufferings. After an entire month, I was able to move well and without any help. As the blue bruising effects on my body have vanished but it deeply dug in my heart.

With every visit of the neighbors, relatives and friend, the story was repeated, and that a woman was entered and raped, another was transferred to the city of AL Bab and there she saw unbelievable things. I was crying at the end of every visit on my status and what happened to me.
I always heard my neighbors whispering how my husband will keep me as his wife after being jailed by ISIS, and how they were convinced that I weren’t raped or being handed over to any ISIS Ameer Those neighbors were the same who came to congratulate me for being back in safe.
The story of (R. Abdel-Salam) of the stories you hear a lot in Manbij, there are many women in the city who suffered from injustice of ISIS during his time in the city, and the community view was she committed a crime that she must die to erase the effects, A little of women who have been able to face the pressure of society, confront it and re-start their lives again.