F.M. The story of a Syrian woman lost her family and drowned in the suffering and difficult humanitarian conditions with her children
Camps of the Syrian north are filled with thousands of stories of women who are horribly suffering the bitterness of loss and difficult living conditions, after they have been left behind by their husbands with their children who are trying to work to ensure a good education for them, where there is no family that has not lost a husband, brother, or a father either killed or prisoned, leaving women to be the biggest victim, Ms. F.M. who is from Shahranaz village in Jabal Shahshabu in the western countryside of Hama, is one of those women who have experienced bitterness of loss and difficult living conditions, where despite her young age of no more than 35 years; her lean body and pale face indicate the extent of suffering, she lost her father, her brother, then her husband, then she found herself playing the role of father in raising a family of 4.
In her testimony to the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, F.M. tells the details of her suffering and story of death of 3 of her family: “I am 33 years old, I lived in a poor and large family, I suffered badly before marriage, so I could not complete my education, I studied only for the 6th grade of primary school, and I got married at an early age, and with the outbreak of the Syrian events, our family was one of the first to come out in the demonstrations that demanded freedom, my older brother was a fan of it and called for demonstration on Minbars on Friday pray, where he worked as the preacher in a mosque, while my husband participated in all the demonstrations and contributed in the defection of members and officers of the regime, and my father also he was receiving activists attending the peaceful movement at his home, these were the reasons why I lost them in just three years, where my father and husband were killed in the same year, followed by my brother less than 2 years later.”
She continued: “On the 28th of May 2012, my 58-year-old father left his home for his farm in Sahl al-Ghab area at the western countryside of Hama for cultivation, in the meantime, there was a column of cars of pro-regime members from al-Rasif village, who shot him from afar and he fell martyr which he was trying to secure his family’s livelihood, this was the first painful incident which affected me greatly, but I did not know that it would be the beginning of more to come, where after the death of my father about a month my husband was killed, he was one of the first activists of the peaceful movement, but the story of his death does not resemble the rest of the stories, he was not killed because of the regime or even in a battle or in a bombing, he was killed by his friend who was accompanying him all the time in all of his movements. In his last days; my husband worked in securing the defection of members of the regime and securing individual weapon for members of the Free Army, On the 15th of June 2012, my husband received a large sum of money to buy weapons from a merchant in Sahl al-Ghab and drove away in his car, he went to the house of his friend who contacted him on the phone inviting him for tea, according to what he admitted, after my husband arrived home, his friend put sleeping pills in the tea, and communicated with another person to help him with the crime, where they hanged him using the robe of his pajamas, and then they put him in his car after stealing 2 million Syrian pounds, in addition to snipers, Kalashnikovs, pistol, laptop, mobile phone, and several grenades.”
The lady F.M. added: “they put my husband in his car and covered it with blocks, until we lost him and we started looking for him in the whole area, then the villagers could catch the perpetrator and killed him after he confessed. While My brother was killed on the 25th of August 2015 in rocket shelling targeted the village. Losing them affected me so much, then my suffering began with my extreme poverty, raising, and supporting my children, and despite the death of my husband I stayed at home with my children to support them, where the oldest of my children is 16 years old, then, in 2017, we went to Turkey and worked as workers in the agricultural lands until we raised a sum of money and opened a women’s clothing store in the village to help me in the costs and requirements of life, after that, the regime forces began their military operation on areas of Idlib and Hama countryside, and I moved with my family towards the north of Syria, and displaced to a small tent near Kafr Takharim town in the northern Idlib countryside, After a short period of the displacement, my house was partially destroyed by airstrikes of the warplanes on the village, so I sent the eldest of my children through smuggling to Turkey to work, and now he works in a vegetable factor so that he can rely on himself and secure his future and marriage, while here, the living conditions are unbearable, where I suffer from difficult material conditions, the tent is torn and I also suffer from the lack of drinking water that I have had to buy at a high price, and also the scarcity of medical supplies, medicines, and food supplies, my children who are 14, 10, and 8 years old need to go to school and exercise their right to education.”
F.M. concluded her testimony to the “Syrian Observatory” by issuing an urgent distress call to humanitarian organizations and charitable organizations, to help her in bearing the burdens of displacement and the necessities of her children, saying: “I appeal to humanitarian organizations, agencies, and all those concerned with the affairs of the displaced people, to help me bear the cost of living and displacement in this camp, to help me and provide a new tent, food, medical supplies, and drinking water, and to help my children to go to school as soon as possible.”