The Askari threat

Assalamu aleykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu!

Dear sisters,

Lately, acts of aggression against people who are weaker happen quite often.

Women and children in the camp in Syria were very often subjected to violence by the military. Very often, boys are those who are the victims. The military in the camp were called Askaris. Which is exactly what military means in Arabic.

The Askaris were constantly grabbing the boys, taking them away, beating them up. If the boys looked older, they were taken to special schools for boys. Those coming back would be severely beaten.

My son was also once picked on by Askari women. He was about 10 years old at the time. We all went to receive humanitarian aid. He wanted to help me, but the military grabbed him and started dragging him. Thanks to Allah, the sisters came running with me and we started to pull him.

There was a lot of aggression towards us and it was expressed in different ways. They forbade doctors to come to our camp. They told us: die here, all of you! They did not allow us to access the market. There were cases when the market was closed for 2 weeks. They did not bring us any water. We could not do anything. When there was fire, water trucks were not allowed to come to us to extinguish it.

The servicemen entered the tents at night, stole money and jewelry. They scared us a lot. There were a lot of cases when the sisters got beaten up.

I remember a case when one sister was beaten very badly, allegedly because she had a phone. The Askaris shouted at her for the first time. She proved that there was no phone, while they proved that there was a phone. An argument broke out. The military were running out of patience, the sister, too. She was pushed by one of the guards, the sister could not stand it and she pushed back. Naturally, the woman living in the camp was the weak one in this case. She was surrounded by the Askaris who began to beat her up. When they stopped, she was covered in blood.

The women could not do anything to help her because the military were carrying weapons that were aimed at anyone who wanted to help. As they told me later, they took her to the hospital. We all thought she was dead, but after a while she came back, praise to Allah.

There was another case in another camp. The situation was slightly different. The women in the camp were all wearing niqabs, the army picked up on a sister to take it off, the woman did not want to, and then an Askari woman decided to rip it off. A fight started afterwards. The sister fought back. She was not taken to prison, and the one who attacked her left the camp, praise to Allah.

Whatever the situation, no matter how weak, we must always ask Allah to give us strength. May He protect the weak and those in need.