Raf’ah al-Jasem al-Hamada

I was born in 1991 and Muhammad was born in 1982. We married in 2003. He was doing his military service at the time, and, after he finished, he began working with his brothers as a butcher. We lived a decent life in our town of Abu Hamam, staying in the family house for four years before moving out to live independently. Over time, our family grew and we had four boys and three girls. Our life was great – our financial situation was good, we didn’t have arguments, and Muhammad cared and provided for our children.

 

Before 2011, Muhammad married another wife. During the revolution, he did not join the fighting on the side of the Free Syrian Army or Jabhat al-Nusra. Instead, he focused on his work and family. Later, in early 2014, we began hearing about ISIS and learned that they had reached our areas. Initially, they treated us well. They distributed zakat (charity tax) money and employed men in the oilfields. However, near the end of Ramadan, they imposed restrictions on smoking and women’s clothing. After ISIS killed three young men from our area, people rose up against them and expelled them from the town. 

 

Later, our clansmen attacked the Kishkiyya municipality building, which ISIS used as their base in the Shaitat towns. In response, ISIS targeted the men they employed at the oilfields and began arresting the men from our clan. This marked the beginning of the battle between us and them. They killed many of us, but we insisted on defending our rights. They threatened to storm our village and kill us because they claimed that we had reneged on our agreements with them.

 

The battle and siege lasted for 12 days, with gunfire and shelling coming from all sides. It was terrifying. Eventually, our men lost to ISIS. They gave us three days to leave the village and threatened to kill anyone who stayed. Consequently, I left with my husband and children for the town of Bahra. We stayed in empty, abandoned houses with only walls and roofs. We were crammed into one house with my in-laws. We were scared, and the children didn’t stop crying for food.

 

During that time, the men hid in the wilderness to evade ISIS patrols, and returned to us only when the raids had stopped. Soon, our food ran out and we were unable to secure more so my husband decided to look for bakeries in Bahra. He succeeded in bringing us bread for two days. On the third day, he took our seven-year-old child on his motorbike, unaware that ISIS was monitoring him. He was arrested. They wanted to take my child with them, but my husband pleaded with them to leave the boy.

 

A few hours later, a person we knew returned my son and informed us of my husband’s arrest. We screamed, and my mother-in-law ran into the street, stopping every ISIS vehicle in search of him, but to no avail. She assured ISIS that her son had not joined the fighting.

 

Four days after his arrest, we learned that Muhammad had been shot dead with a hunting rifle. We couldn’t believe that ISIS, which had advanced weaponry, would kill someone with a hunting rifle. His mother didn’t stop looking for him. ISIS gave her the impression that there were secret prisons for the Shaitat clansmen and promised her that she might find her son in one of them after returning to our towns.

 

Negotiations for our return began. Residents of Gharanij returned first, followed by residents of Kishkiyya. My brothers-in-law secured a rifle for me so that I could return with the rest of the family to Kishkiyya (ISIS had imposed a condition of handing over weapons in exchange for the return of exiled residents). Later my brother-in-law, Kamel, learned the details of my husband’s death, and confirmed that he had been initially detained in an ISIS prison in the area. Muhammad had assured them that he was not a fighter and ISIS were about to release him, until a new report claimed otherwise. That’s why they executed him. He’d sworn that he hadn’t carried a weapon or fought anyone.

 

Eventually, a man who had witnessed the killing of my husband Muhammad and three others told us where they were buried. We went to the location and exhumed their bodies, confirming that Muhammad had indeed been killed by a hunting rifle. As for the other three, one had been shot and the other two were beheaded. ISIS had buried a dog in the same place, as if to convey that our dead were like dogs, and they didn’t view us as human.

 

We buried my husband without holding a condolence ceremony. We didn’t dare announce his death, to protect his brothers. We never learned the exact date of his martyrdom, but he was arrested on August 10, 2014.

 

ISIS caused tragedies for everyone. We were afraid to announce my husband’s death to protect his brothers, as ISIS considered anyone killed to be a fighter – even though many innocent people were unjustly killed. Even women were impacted. We wanted to return to our past life, harvesting vegetables in the fields, but we were too scared.