At first glance, Zein, Rafia (a pseudonym) and Ahed look like any other twenty-something women. But each has already experienced far more than most people twice their age have: Zein and Ahed, while working as paramedics in a makeshift field hospital; Rafia, by being one of the few independent journalists still writing about both Bashar al-Assad and ISIS (and is the reason she is obscuring her identity for this story). Active in Syria's pro-democracy movement, the women had travelled to New York from their homes in Damascus and Aleppo to speak out about what conditions are really like in one of the most war-torn places on Earth.
They are just some of the subjects of the documentary series Syria's Rebellious Women, produced by journalist and filmmaker Zaina Erhaim. The films focus on women still living and working inside Syria. Because the women have not fled the country and continue their struggle against both the government and ISIS, Erhaim said the films were too sensitive to put online, except for this brief trailer.
At one of three worldwide screenings, Zein, Ahed, and Rafia sat down with Refinery29 to share their stories before returning to Syria.
Caption: Zein, Rafia, and Ahed (from left), pro-democracy activists from Syria. Zein and Ahed have worked as paramedics in a rebel field hospital; Rafia (a pseudonym) chose not to reveal her identity because she still works as a journalist in government-controlled Damascus.
Zein describes herself as "one of the girls of the revolution." When demonstrations against Assad began on her university campus in Aleppo in 2011, she quickly joined in. But she said she knew she wanted to do more to support the rebels fighting against the government than just protest.
"I did some trainings in first aid and as a paramedic. Then, I volunteered to work in a field hospital," Zein said in Arabic. "In lots of cases, we were helping those who were injured in front of us. We were knitting their wounds, or dealing with their injuries, and we were crying at the same time, because we just couldn’t be that objective. But at the same time, we were claiming that we were powerful in front of them. We were trying to comfort them, telling them, 'Your injury is not bad, you're gonna be going back to your previous [life] again.'"
Zein said that she and the other volunteer paramedics — many of whom were women who had never worked in medicine before — learned to just keep going.
"We want people to know that Syrian women are not all victims, as even Syrian society is treating them. The woman is protective, she's powerful. She's worked in field hospitals, she’s participated in demonstrations, she's taught in field schools. And we even have battalions of women... So everything that the men did in the revolution, the women did as well. We have a slogan that the revolution is female."
But her work at Dar Shifaa field hospital made her a target. Zein was arrested, and she spent more than a year in prison. She remembers writing on the prison walls constantly.
"I wrote, 'To every free man, don't be sad, God is with us,'" she said. Life behind bars during her 14-month sentence was brutal. "When the door opened, you knew it was your time to be tortured," Zein said. Once, she said, an officer forced her to watch as he raped a man in front of her. If she looked away, he told her she would be raped next.
When she was released, she said her parents urged her to just get married, thinking that the right suitor could "remove the stigma of her detention."
"I do not want to be pitied!" Zein said in her film. She left her parents behind and started living on her own.
Photographed by: Erin Yamagata.
Now, Zein works as a teacher at a Free Syrian Army school in Aleppo. But she said she doesn't see the point of having her own children until the war is over.
"I belong to this country, and this is my duty toward my country and to those who are living in it. I believe in the revolution. I believe in my country. And I get the hope from those little children that I teach. I see the future of the free democratic Syria in their eyes," Zein said.
She said she is frustrated, however, that the world has stopped calling on Assad to step down, as more and more countries join the fight against ISIS in Syria.
"I don’t have any hope in the international community. We still have some hope with the moderate rebels that are still fighting on the ground. I still have hope because of those civilians and activists who, despite all the destruction and the extensive bombing, are still fighting to survive on their daily basic life," Zein said.
"I want the world to know that this is not a sectarian war. This is a revolution. We are not terrorists. We, as all the people in the world, we want democratic freedom, freedom of speech, a country where you have multiple political parties. But the regime replied to our human-rights chants with massacring and killing.
"We want people to see the actual horrific scenes that are happening on the ground, not only just focusing about the extremists and ISIS. Because, although we are facing the problems with them and we are victims of them, the main threat for us is mainly the Assad regime and its air force. They must know that only the moderate rebels are the ones who are protecting us. They are preventing the regime from advancing to our lands. They are preventing ISIS from advancing in our lands. And now they, as we are, are the main targets for Russian bombing. Our main problem, and the main cause of our tragedy, is the regime. Before toppling the regime, nothing else will happen."
Ahed describes herself as "three-quarters guy and one-quarter girl." Wearing slim-fitting jeans and a white hijab, her smartphone ever by her side, she seemed at ease in New York, where we met. But in the film about her, she explains that she keeps a loaded pistol in her house in Aleppo, just in case.
Ahed was at the forefront of anti-Assad protests in Aleppo in 2011. Like Zein, she went to work at Dar Shifaa field hospital.
"At that time, most of the professional medics actually ran away, so we had to volunteer to do that work. We got used to doing that, because we were handling lots of massacres happening daily by the [Syrian] air force," Ahed explained in Arabic.
She worked in one field hospital until it completely collapsed in 2012, then went to work training other Syrian women in first aid.
"I trained around 50 people, 50 women activists who are living inside Syria," Ahed said. "[But] I think now, after four years, I lost that power to deal with the medical first aid, and the hard injuries."
Photographed by: Erin Yamagata.
Ahed now works running a fuel depot where the field hospital used to be. She said, at first, people questioned why a 28-year-old woman was in charge of coordinating aid in Aleppo.
"I think what the Syrian women are doing is very unique. I don’t think it’s easy for any woman in the world to be capable of doing this," Ahed said. "We kind of get used to the war life, somehow. We usually just keep working. Even if there are barrel bombs hitting my neighbourhood, I would just go to work as if there is nothing happening, to keep going. We feel really insane because we get used to these horrific circumstances, but this is our way to keep going."
She urged women around the world to follow the lead of Syrian women.
"Be more engaged in what’s better for your country," she said. "There are lots of issues that you can participate in, and that you can take a role in. Your role is not just to get married and have kids, as is the stereotype. You can see some of these women, Syrian women, who were always treated according to this typical picture, but now they’re doing everything."
Rafia Salame is 30 years old. She wore jeans and a red sweater, her hair uncovered. This is not her real name, but because she will return to Damascus to continue writing for opposition media outlets, she said she has chosen this alias for safety.
Introducing herself in English, Rafia said, "I am a feminist and an activist… I’ve organised demonstrations and participated in them since 2011, and I’ve been arrested four times since."
She spoke matter-of-factly about those four arrests, which landed her in prison for several months each time. The first, she says, was because of a betrayal by one of her colleagues after joining an early demonstration against the Assad government. The second and third were for protesting and for organising a coalition between opposition groups. She was last arrested just this year, and was released only because she bribed a judge with $8,000.
"We are using bribes now to get out [of jail] as activists," Rafia said. "We are lucky, of course, to get the right person, the right judge."
Photographed by: Erin Yamagata.
As an independent journalist, Rafia said she moves between government-controlled and rebel-controlled areas around Damascus. The situation in both places is dire, she said.
"In the regime area, the main problem for most people is economic. Also, the crowdedness, because of the internally displaced people…. They are all suffering from this kind of life, they are all living in fear. Now, the young boys are almost nonexistent in the street. As my friend said, the veiled women can go out now without the veil. We are all women now, because they are recruiting [the men] to the army, and that is a deadly thing."
She said moves between government-controlled areas into opposition-controlled ones through underground tunnels. She smuggles her camera in separately. On the opposition side, people have even less, she said.
"You know, they have lost hope totally, I can say… Most of them want to flee the country, because there is no hope," Rafia said. "The [opposition] side is completely out of electricity, completely out of any help."
Because her work is so sensitive and she has been arrested several times, she no longer lives with either family or friends.
"It's better for me to stay out of the family, so I don’t live with them. I started for my own reason, but now I am obligated to," Rafia said. "…I became more comfortable living alone, not inviting my friends, not having a boyfriend, not having anybody in my close circle, because I feel the fear for them.
"I prefer to be alone, to be responsible for my own doings, not for others. Because it’s my place, and if I were to be arrested, they will be taken with me. So this is a nightmare for me."
Rafia said she files reports and sends information to other journalists outside of Syria. She uses a virtual private network to mask her identity.
"My work has to be a lot of planning. How to go, how to pass the checkpoints, what do you have in your purse, and the identity you hold, where are you from? So, there’s places you might not be able to enter easily, like very pro-government places," Rafia said.
Rafia said Assad stepping down is the only way forward.
"The regime [needs] to go down, in the first place, and then everything could be discussed differently. I think that would make a huge difference for us as activists, and for the whole situation — even the military situation with ISIS, and everything."
Like Zein and Ahed, Rafia said she, too, is frustrated with how the international community has changed its focus from calling on Assad to step down to solely fighting ISIS.
"[The world is] kind of forgetting a lot of how everything happened. They kind of left us alone until the worst has happened, until we have ISIS, which was shocking for us Syrians. We started a revolution for democracy and freedom. We just wanted to fight the dictatorship," Rafia said.
"[Now] all of the country has been ruined, and we have extremists, and we are fighting them, and we have to work against them. And the world is just forgetting it, like they are forgetting the refugees' problems…. Come on, there is a code, and you were there, and you know it. And you said, 'Assad has to go.' I don’t know why we have been left alone so far until now."
Photographed by: Erin Yamagata.
Rafia also wants the world to stop equating Syrians with ISIS, especially following the attacks in Paris.
"I would like the world not to see me, and my friends, and the Syrian people as terrorists. I think we are the main victims of terrorism nowadays. It's very frustrating to be blamed for being terrorists. And maybe ISIS is in Syria, but most of them aren't Syrians. And the ones who are Syrians, unfortunately, they are pushed to that because of the lack of any other possibility," Rafia said.
And she said her hopes for 2016 extend far beyond Syria's borders.
"As soon as possible, a cease-fire. Regime down. ISIS out. Arms out. Then, we have a lot of problems in the society to deal with," Rafia said. "I have big dreams of a society. I don’t think we deserve less than anybody in this world or this universe. I want to change the world, not only my country. So I think we can start with making a real feminist way to look at the world.
"I believe that I belong to the planet Earth, and I would like to contribute to being in it. I believe in the values of freedom, democracy, of respecting one another, of helping one another," Rafia said. "I’m trying to do my share of work for humanity in my country…I think it's my duty."
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