Abused, tortured Syrian woman recalls horrors

By Cem Genco

HATAY, Turkey

Despite the passage of years, a Syrian refugee in Turkey is still haunted by the horrors of her past under the Assad regime.

Muna B., 33, has been living in the Reyhanli district of Turkey’s southeastern Hatay province for two years.

Before fleeing to Turkey, she was arrested and imprisoned in the capital Damascus, after her husband spent two years in custody and died there of torture.

The mother of two is still fighting for life and trying to shed her painful memories.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, she recalled: “We had a hard life for two years. We didn’t lose hope until we got the news of my husband’s death.

“They didn’t even give us his body. We had nobody to depend on. We lost most of our relatives during the civil war.”

She decided to flee the region with her children to find a safe haven, but was taken into custody by regime force who took her to the same jail where her husband had been tortured.

“I was put in a single cell and subjected to various tortures. I had no food. I was given electric shock and beaten by iron bars,” she said.

Further horrors followed, in the form of rape.

“The worst was being raped. In an underground cell I suffered terribly for weeks.”

“I could never forget those days,” she added.

She spent almost seven months in prison before being freed as part of a prisoner exchange.

She is now working to raise her two children, age 11 and 13, living in a house rented for her by the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) Turkish aid agency.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in 2011. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and millions more displaced, according to the UN.

Turkey currently hosts 3.2 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.