Al-Raqqa's story with Daesh: an unforgettable tragedy

AMINA AL_ALI/AL_RAQQA

Al-Raqqa city's people during Islamic State’s gangs occupation to al-Raqqa were exposed to various forms repression, murder and torture, where IS imposed unfair laws and severely punished those who violated these laws as imprisonment, murder, and cutting hands.

Although six months have passed since liberation of al-Raqqa city, photographs of that period are still in the memory of the parents, who would bitterly narrate them whenever they have the opportunity.

Amsha al-Dhib, a woman from al-Mashlab neighborhood, cut her son's hands with false pretext she said "They arrested my son with a false pretext. I used to go to them every day and ask for my son's release, but they asked me for some money."

Amsha was forced to sell all her gold possessions and pay to the mercenaries one million S.P, but she was surprised when her son came out that the mercenaries had cut off his right hand.

These tragic memories are still living in Amsha’s mind “We have learned nothing about Islam, as they claim, but we have learned retribution, cutting hands, enslavement, killing and bombing, what Islam is talking about! Thank God the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) saved us from the oppressors.

Asma Taha, at 18 years old, suffered a different with Islamic State gangs who were always chasing her and her husband until a day came when her husbandis lost to this day. "On 26/11/2016, my husband went to the market to bring my children towels and milk .He was shaved, Four days later, the mercenaries called me and told me that my husband had been arrested because of a fight with a mercenary. I went to their headquarters to know something about my husband, and they did not tell me and to this day I do not know whether my husband has died or is alive in their prisons."

Women slaves" have also tragic stories

Selling women as slaves, torturing and killing them were also one aspect of the suffering of the people, women in al-al-Raqqa were maltreated during (IS) occupation. Fawza, a woman who had a hairdressing salon, has already met one of Yezidis and listened to her suffering. "One day, one of the mercenaries brought a woman and asked me to dye her hair." When she spoke with her, she found out she did not speak Arabic very well, said she Yezidi women and that the mercenary wanted to marry her forcibly and talked about torture and murder of mercenaries.

(T/S)

ANHA