Woman from Syria’s Raqqa bullied after leaving Hawl Camp
Hawl Camp in the east of Hasakah – North Press
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Ahlam al-Muhammad, 31, a mother of five from Raqqa Governorate in northern Syria, has left Hawl Camp, east of Hasakah, thinking that she attained salvation.
When she returned, her family member, including brothers and sisters, and her husband’s family, welcomed her. So, she decided to face difficulty by herself amid the deteriorating living condition.
Ahlam left the camp with her five children in 2019. They live in a single room without doors or windows, because real estate offices’ owners and homeowners refused to rent her a house.
People fear of her niqab and turned to other people, asking her many question where no one rents a house to ISIS wife.
After her family rejected her, she said in a voice trembling that “When I got out of Hawl Camp, I thought I was out of a prison, but I am now in a big prison because my relatives abandoned me.”
Ahlam talked to North Press via Whatsapp where she sent a lot of voices, once she cried and once she was silent during talking.
The woman cries forcibly in her circumstance especially when the children are subjected to bullying and no one deals with ISIS children.
She left the camp three years ago, and she did not find any organization to support her. In addition, her children did not go to school.
She wonders with lump “What is my children’s guilt. They have nothing to do with their father’s crime.”
There are many organizations in Raqqa but few of them work in the field of psychological support.
Raqqa lacks rehabilitation centers for children returning from the camp to fight extremist ideology.
On January 16, 272 families left the camp on three batches on the bail of dignitaries and tribal leaders in 2021, Amr Diyab, an official of Public Affairs Office in the Raqqa Civil Council said.
In 2020, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) launched an initiative in coordination with dignitaries and tribal leaders to take out the Syrian families from Hawl Camp.
ISIS women and children face social disapproval, bullying and verbal harassment. To fight hate speech, it requires efforts by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) and Humanitarian Organizations.
After they were subjected to bullying, the mother warned their children not to tell about father’s life.
When she moves to a new house she is keen not to tell her neighborhood about her life in Hawl camp.
“ISIS children”
“ISIS Children” is a phrase that people bully against her Ahlam children.
A young man blackmailed her eldest child, 10, after he wrote information about his ISIS father.
The young man threatened child’s mother where he will slander them if she does not pay him 2.000 Syria pound (SYP).
The child did not dare to tell what happened but the eldest brother told her that they threatened him.
She was unable to respond but only a strange feeling greater than helplessness.
In the absence of organizations sponsoring, Ahlam continues to teach her children reading and writing but not registering them in the AANES schools and lack of resourcefulness pose an obstacle.
She could not send her children to school due to not owning a permanent house and every time she was expelled after neighborhood’s knowledge that she returned from Hawl camp.
Now she lives in a room without windows and doors which led her to helplessness.
She continues saying, “My family has abandoned me, and my relatives do not ask about my condition. Maybe they are afraid of issues.”
Her family stipulated that she give up her children to receive her.
When Ahlam returned to Raqqa, she tried to integrate into society but she was refused by them.
Additionally, like others, the children were subjected to bullying and hurtful words at the time they need to society’s sympathy and support organizations.
Ahlam ended her speech “God does not forget anyone.”
On April 21, Amira al-Hassan, co-chair of the Child Protection Office in Raqqa, said the office cooperates with local organizations and associations to implement a plan for the rehabilitation of the children who got out of Hawl Camp.
The plan will include programs about psychological support, social events, follow-up the children’s situation and learning about what they have gone through during their stay at Hawl Camp.