Princess: Stepping Out of the Shadows, стр. 38
And so I fell into a deep slumber with my husband cuddling me.
* * *
Kareem and I were so exhausted that we both slept through the afternoon and evening. The following morning I felt revitalized and Kareem and I temporarily parted so that both might shower and prepare ourselves for the new day, but agreed to meet for breakfast by the pool.
An hour later when we met as planned I noticed that at first he looked intently at my hands.
‘No, they are not trembling,’ I said with a smile.
‘It was the cuddle cure,’ he replied, with a smile of his own.
After eating pitta bread, boiled eggs and yogurt, and drinking sweet tea, I felt my strength return.
‘All right. Tell me a few facts about those rescues, Kareem. Maha will go into every detail and my strength will ebb if I hear the specifics of yet another girl or woman who was violated.’
‘Yes, you are right, Sultana.’
‘All right, then. I am ready.’
Kareem exhaled. ‘These stories are the most tragic because all are young girls or women who were taken from their homes, from their parents or husband, and kept isolated and tortured.’ Kareem asked, ‘Which of the three did you hear about?’
‘Souzan. The teenager kidnapped, imprisoned and raped repeatedly.’
‘Right. She, at least, is with her mother and siblings in Jordan. While she will never be the same girl she once was, she does have a chance to live something close to a normal life.’
‘Normal? I do not think so. You know from our societies that no man will marry her. She will never have a husband or children, something most women want. So I would never say she will live a normal life.’
‘I take your point, darling. But she is with her mother. She is with her siblings. She is receiving medical attention. She is safe. At least she is alive!’
‘Only that – she is alive – nothing more, at least for now.’
Kareem had a sad look on his face but said nothing more.
‘What of the other two girls, Kareem?’
‘One was a young mother. I cannot remember her name. I believe she was in her early twenties. She was the mother of a toddler and had also given birth a few months before she was taken. Her husband was not fighting against the government, but her uncle was caught transporting weapons. He managed to run away from the government security forces after he had been identified but had no way of alerting his family to vacate their home; he knew security would come and they would take others if he was not there.
‘The young mother had no knowledge of the event and very innocently walked over a couple of streets from her home to visit her aunt. Thinking she would be away only an hour, she left her infant with her mother but took her toddler along, as her aunt had a similarly aged child and the toddler enjoyed play time with his cousin.
‘The young mother’s fate was linked to bad luck. While she was visiting her aunt, the security forces crashed into the house. Unable to find the husband, they took hostages, the young mother and her toddler son. This reaction is routine for them, from all that I know from security reports I have read.
‘The other toddler had successfully hidden when the noise of the crashing door frightened him. The wife of the hunted man was left behind, as the security misunderstood and believed they were taking the wife and child of the one they were tracking. Therefore, they mistakenly took the wrong woman and the wrong child. As much as the uncle felt remorse that his niece and great-nephew had been kidnapped, he refused to turn himself in to release them.’
Kareem lifted his shoulders. ‘And, from what we know, the Syrian government never lives up to its promises, so it would have been a wasted life anyhow.’
‘And the young mother and her child?’ I asked, dreading to know what I was about to discover.
‘The young mother had a similar experience to Souzan. She was held as a hostage and was beaten and raped. She was finally released approximately six months later, but here is the real tragedy. She never saw her toddler son again. The security forces actually denied taking the child. They claimed that the mother was hallucinating. Although she was reunited with her infant, over time this baby had come to believe her grandmother was her mother. Sadly she failed to recognize her mother. The entire family was in danger because once someone is taken into custody the Syrian government never forgets them. They return time and again to ask for bribes or to threaten the family with brutal consequences.
‘This entire family was set to go to a camp in Lebanon, but once Maha’s team was involved they were taken to Amman, in Jordan, the same as Souzan’s family. That is where they are now living.
‘Unfortunately, the young mother has broken down many times, unable to forget her toddler son and what he must have endured. She wants to see his body and that alone will help her to move to a position of being able to heal. The unknown is unbearable. She is most afraid that her son is still a prisoner and is being tortured and is crying endlessly for his mother. The last sight and sound of her son was when she saw his little face, terrified, and heard his pitiful cries. Then he was very roughly taken away. I assume they killed the child, but there is no way of knowing.’
‘Oh, Kareem,’ I cried. ‘How can these men inflict this horrendous pain on innocent