Society crueler than prison: female survivors of arrest, detention in Syria’s Idlib

IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Some women in Idlib, northwestern Syria, who suffered terrible conditions after being arrested by government forces, find themselves ostracized from their families and society after being released.

Former female detainees may lose their sources of income or their children, in addition to being accused of bringing shame to their families, due to the prevailing thought that detained women are raped inside Syrian regime prisons.

Su’adah Ola al-Mahmoud (a pseudonym), a resident of the city of Idlib, did not have the chance to enjoy her freedom after leaving the Syrian government prisons, as her husband divorced her. What should have been a happy day for al-Mahmoud turned into a day full of shock and tears.  

Torture outside prison walls  

al-Mahmoud, a 35-year-old mother of three who was released at the end of last year after facing terrible conditions during her arrest, believes that society’s treatment of her after she left prison is harsher than the prison walls and torture rooms.  

She was arrested in the city of Hama while going to obtain a passport. Many women are arrested when visiting their relatives in government-held areas or while carrying out transactions such as marriage, inheritance, sale and purchase transactions that require going to government departments in person.

During her arrest, al-Mahmoud was charged with “dealing with terrorists,” because her brother fought among the ranks of the Free Syrian Army (now known as the Syrian National Army).  

“At the end of each investigation, the officer used to beat me and insult me using the most horrific words, and say, ‘You will not get out of this place until I get your brother instead of you’,” she told North Press. 

Her mother was forced to sell her house to pay three million Syrian pounds to a lawyer, so that he could secure her release by bribing some of those responsible for the investigation and arrest.  

Six months after her arrest, al-Mahmoud left prison only to find that her husband had divorced her, taken her children, and emigrated to Europe with his second wife.

The matter did not stop with her husband, whom she considered “the closest person to her,” but affected everything around her. “People look at me with pity and blame at the same time. Even my girlfriends avoid meeting me.”

“Society considers our arrest a sin and a shame, and prefers to hold us responsible for the violations that the regime committed against us,” she added.

Dreams lost

22-year-old Reem, a student from Ma’arat al-Numan to the south of Idlib, was abandoned by her family after her release from prison.

The family forced her to travel to Turkey to stay with her sister’s family, “to get rid of the shame and avoid inquiries of the people and relatives about whether their daughter was raped in prison or not.”

“I wanted to complete my studies at Aleppo University, despite my family’s constant fear, until my dream was lost,” she told North Press.

Government security forces broke into Reem’s dormitory in October 2018 and arrested Reem, imprisoning her on charges that she participated in anti-government demonstrations in Ma’arat al-Numan.

She was also accused of participating in relief work, so she stayed in prison for 13 months, during which she “was subjected to all kinds of physical and psychological torture, including beating, burning with cigarettes, and electrocution.”

“Thinking about my family while I was in prison caused me great pain, especially my sick mother…how will she bear the news of my arrest? And my father, who will feel humiliated in front of people,” she added.

“The arrest made me lose my family and my studies. I also lost the reconciliation with myself, so I live locked in painful memories and psychological stress,” Reem concluded.

Harsher than prison   

Society’s view of the arrested woman differs from its view men who have survived detention, to the extent that the suffering of the surviving woman may be more severe than the prison itself due to society.

Ghada al-Sarjawi, a psychologist from the city of Sarmada in the northern countryside of Idlib, believes that arrest and detention can cause severe psychological trauma.

“Because those in charge of the Syrian prisons are masters at torturing their victims and causing them terror both inside and outside prisons,” she said.   

Al-Sarjawi stressed that female survivors need several psychological and social services such as training in professions that make them feel financially independent, in addition to support and help from society, “so that they can start a new life and get over what they went through.”  

These women also need psychological and physical medical services, “because most of them were released from prisons with conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney diseases, and neurological diseases,” according to Al-Sarjawi.  

Reporting by Hala al-Sheikh Ahmed