“He threatened to kill my daughter, rape me, take pictures and distribute them to everyone. He forced me to watch the cruel torture of women. It was so bad that I became ill just by the sight”, says an unnamed woman in a video detailing her capture in Afrin, northern Syria.
Afrin was once in a Kurdish majority region where women had more rights than elsewhere in Syria, a patriarchal country in a bloodthirsty war. Child marriage was banned, polygamy was forbidden and domestic violence was an offence.
The city was safe through much of the Syrian war and was a sanctuary which welcomed everyone. Shiler Sido, a 31-year-old former Afrin resident and volunteer with the Kurdish Red Crescent tells openDemocracy: “We had a free atmosphere where everyone presented themselves, especially women, as they wanted. You could wear shorts, skirts, short dresses - anything”.
