Salaam aleikum va rahmatu Llahi, my dear Muslim Sisters. Teaching our children, both from the religious point of view, as well as when it comes to their personal development is an extremely important undertaking for every mother. When you trapped in a refugee camp for women and children in Syria teaching your young ones is an extremely difficult task to achieve, especially considering that any gathering amongst the residents of the camp, regardless of the reason, was and still is strictly forbidden. During the first year of my imprisonment inside the camp, nobody made even the slightest attempt to even try and start to educate the children, because we all afraid that we would be punished. Time passed, the children grew, as it is usually the way with all children and, of course, their development began to suffer, as their general knowledge of the world and their behavior quickly degraded. In short, they were turning into outright savages. At first, we were all expecting to be released soon, but then, as more and more time went by without any changes, we began to lose our hope for the future.
So, Allah gave us courage once more, and we decide to overcome our fears, face the risks, and start making some learning materials for our small one. Some Muslim Sisters started reading to the children from the Quran and also started teaching them Arabic. Also, we began to teach the smaller children how to read and write. The entire endeavor could prove to be extremely risky and even outright dangerous, as the teacher could be beaten up by the guards and sent to prison. To be completely honest, the soldiers did not even understand that we were only trying to teach our children something useful, they simply would not allow us to come together or reconvene, not even in small groups. But I digress. To resume, for the older children, there were some Muslim Sisters that had a working knowledge of the exact sciences and they trying to pique the interest of the teenagers in science. A group was formed for the girls, and a different group for the teenage boys. Boys were taught English, Russian and Mathematics, while the girls had a more advanced curricula, as they were older than the boys. Apart from the lessons in English, Russian and Mathematics, the girls were also taught some notions of Physics, Geography and Biology. The Muslim Sisters that undertook the task of teaching the children tried to make each lesson as interesting as possible for the children. I must say, they succeed since, more often than not, after the „classes”, the children happily and eagerly ran back to their mothers to tell them about all the new and exciting things they had learnt. Usually, when the Sisters went to the market, they requested the sellers to also bring printed copies of some textbooks, in order to have new materials for the improvised school inside the camp. So, each lesson was filled with new knowledge for the children, helping them to progress and improve their cognitive skills, their morals and overall behavior.
I need to remind you, at this point in my story, my dear readers, that gatherings of any sorts were strictly forbidden and all participants in any type or form of such gatherings was susceptible to severe punishment. To avoid getting caught by the guards, the places where the lessons took place were constantly being changed by the Sisters. I was very afraid to let my children go to these lessons but, on the other hand, I had no other choice. The children could not continue to grow and develop as individuals and as good, honest Muslims otherwise and, my children, and I suspect other children as well, were not very keen in learning everything from their mothers. My children did not wish me to also be their teacher and that was the main reason myself, and other Muslim Sisters in the camp, felt that it was worth the risk to set up an improvised school on the premises. After all, the risk of the children growing up without education and a strong religious and moral compass was much higher.
Often, the soldiers managed to find out where the lessons were taking place and tried to catch everyone in the act in order to punish them. Luckily, each time the guards set out to interrupt the lessons, the news of their arrival inside the premises of the camp quickly spread and everyone had time to leave and safely arrive back to their tents.
I still do not know if exposing our children to the risk of being caught by the guards, beaten up or imprisoned was the right decision to make. But I believe that, for the sake of knowledge and education, one must take risks if one is left with no other options than to remain forever in the darkness of ignorance.
A whole year passed like this, then a second one, just as fast, as we still remained prisoners inside the camp. We pitied our children, being forced to grow up like this, in such harsh and unfriendly conditions, with little but nothing to occupy their times. The number of textbooks and reading materials that could be printed and bought from the market was not very high and, unfortunately, the number of those that simply did not know how to use them and what to do with them was constantly increasing.
In any case, we placed our entire Faith in Allah and we asked Him to protect us. And, as always, He showed us Mercy and took good care of us. Alhamdulillah, every time the soldiers would enter the camp, the children managed to quickly disperse and run towards their respective tents. And I believe, to this day, that this happened only through the Grace of Allah Almighty, who took great Mercy upon us.
Asira
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