Voices-from-the-Dark.pdf

To those who say "Syrian refugees are cowards," this is what awaits them for staying. I implore everybody to read this document.

“Zahira”: Five months in detention, which started with 15 days of relentless brutal sexual
violence including gang rape for which she needed four months of reparative surgeries and
treatment
«Zahira» was 45 years old when she was arrested in 2013 from her work place in the suburbs
of Damascus. She was detained in multiple locations for approximately six months, including
Al Mezzeh Military Airport (15 days), the Palestine Branch (Branch 235)(three months 22 days),
a centre in Rukheddeen neighbourhood (one month), another in Kafr Sousa district (one
month) and Adra Prison.

During 15 days at Al Mezzeh Military Airport, «Zahira» was subjected to multiple rapes, threats
of rape and sexual violence. Immediately upon arrival, she was stripped searched, before
being taken to another location where she was tied to a bed and gang-raped orally and vaginally
by ve men. She was later threatened to be raped in front of her husband, who was also
detained at Al Mezzeh airport. During one interrogation session, having been beaten and
asked to confess, she was then stripped naked and sexually penetrated in “every body cavity”.
Her interrogator lmed this and threatened to show the people in her community.
In addition to the brutal sexual violence, she was also electrocuted on her leg and through her
head, beaten with a green plastic water hose (“Al-Akdar Al-Ibrahimi”), shackled by the abdomen
to male detainees including her husband and beaten, and hit in the face. She was tied to
a board and her feet beaten, again with the green hose. She was also tied to an iron chair,
turned upside now and her back bent. Again all throughout, she was beaten, insulted and
told to confess. Between interrogations, «Zahira» was held in a 1m x 1m solitary connement
cell, without fresh air or light. She was even sexually assaulted as she was taken from Al
Mezzeh airport, a soldier grabbed her breasts.

In the Palestine Branch, she was kept in a cell which was about 3m x 4m, with around 48 other
women. The women had to sleep in shifts, and on their sides. They were allowed to the toilet
once every 12 hours, and to the showers/washroom once every 40 days. Throughout her time
there, «Zahira» had a fever and headaches. She was nally released from Adra as her health had
declined so severely that she lost consciousness and they thought she had died. She had hepatitis,
pneumonia and anemia. She had a blood transfusion and curettage to “clean out her
uterus”. She stayed in hospital for four months for multiple surgeries to correct faecal-urinary
incontinence resulting from the multiple rapes.