10 March 2018•Update: 11 March 2018
By Feride Pelin Inal
GAZIANTEP, Turkey
Pleading for help for their fellow detainees, women who once languished in Syrian regime-controlled prisons are recounting their torment in an effort to raise awareness.
A.H.Y., who was incarcerated for six months from 2015 through 2016 in a prison in Homs run by the Bashar al-Assad regime, told Anadolu Agency she faced torture and as a nurse was prevented from providing medical assistance to those who opposed the regime.
“They raped teenage girls without showing mercy. We could do nothing. They tortured me and my elder sister in various ways,” she said.
She lamented that Syria’s society alienates ex-women prisoners.
“It is the most difficult thing to be a woman in Syria.”
Narrating her life story, A.H.Y. said she took refuge in Turkey a year and a half ago with her three children, leaving her pro-regime husband behind.
Another former prisoner, L. A., who was jailed for nine years during the rule of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar al-Assad, said there has been no end to the ordeal.
Saying she was jailed for opposing the regime, L. A., a law faculty graduate, recounted her torture in prison.
“The beatings and torture never stopped. They put me in an electric chair. I was also beaten while lying on the ground.”
Residing in Turkey for four years, A. also mentioned the violence and oppression in regime prisons.
“Women there are dying every day. There are scores of women in prisons.
“We should not forget and get them out.”
On Tuesday, the International Conscience Convoy, which describes itself as the "voice of oppressed women in Syria," embarked on a three-day journey with 55 buses from Istanbul's Yenikapi Square.
They held a final rally to mark International Women's Day in Hatay, which borders Syria, after making stops in the Turkish cities of Izmit, Sakarya, Ankara and Adana.
Women from over 50 countries, including Syria, Chile, Palestine, Iraq, England, Brazil, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kuwait and Qatar, addressed a large crowd at a fairground in Antakya district.
More than 6,700 women, including 417 young girls, are still being held in prisons run by the Syrian regime, according to a statement by the Conscience Convoy.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
