This article is part of Mafaza Digital Zine that explores the concept of survival. You can read also: The Governance of Hope by Hsain al-Shehabi, Apocalypse in the Body by Kinana Issa, To Fall from Nowhere by Nour Mousa, Identity Survival in The Diaspora by Ola Barqawi, The World is Not a Small Village by Raja Salim, Living Wounds: Violations & Victimhood by Sasha Zack, To Be Understood Without Talking by Shaunt Raffi, and Furnishing Memory by Ali Zaraket.
Read the Arabic Issue here.
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Nabil Mohamad
A Syrian journalist and critic who worked as a correspondent and editor for several Arabic news media organizations. He has been a resident of Canada since 2022. His novel, Dawrat Aghrār (Freshmen Training), was published in Italy in 2020.
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“Merely escaping war, does not mean you have survived.”
Firas al-Fawwal, A Syrian activist that lost his limb
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Survivors cross borders, whichever borders they find. Those of countries, of war, of the cemeteries where they buried their loved ones. Those who were able to escape believe that they have survived. However, a memory laden with details and images of the preceding journey alters all abstract values and concepts such as ‘homeland’ and ‘belonging.’ One’s memories can alter the meanings of love and friendship, especially for those who have lost a lover or a friend but managed to escape the wrath of war with their bodies intact. In war, some walk onward, leaving behind homes whose details will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Some are reminded every morning by their walking canes that a part of their body has been permanently gnawed off by war.
“If you have the strength, it shouldn’t matter if you have lost an arm or a leg, for strength comes from within,” said Ibrahim Al-Hussein in a press interview. Ibrahim Al-Hussein is the young Syrian swimmer who stood at the peak of the historical Olympia, bearing the Olympic torch and announcing the start of the journey toward the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. The impact of this event is not merely related to his excellence as an athlete or even his resilience as a survivor of war who traversed the sea toward Europe in search of safety. It is also attributed to the way Al-Hussein survived the war in a physically diminished manner. Before he fled the country like tens of thousands of Syrian youths, he lost his right leg to gunfire from the Syrian regime forces in his city of Deir ez-Zor.
Al-Hussein’s needs were greater than the needs of the majority of the other refugees. To start with, he needed an artificial limb; only then could his dreams and aspirations regain their natural share of thought. Nevertheless, his dreams never lost their significance, as today he has become a swimmer on the world stage, representing Greece, where he holds citizenship.
For Al-Hussein, the narrative differs from typical stories about the success and excellence of people with disabilities. Such stories often reference a variety of factors that assisted the person with a disability in overcoming or managing their condition. These factors include a supportive social environment that was equipped to deal with people with disabilities, access to high-quality artificial limbs and other assistive devices, as well as specialized rehabilitation centers able to guide such individuals in overcoming obstacles. To succeed in a given field and to achieve your goals as a person with a disability, you normally need external support in addition to determination. However, Al-Hussein and others in similar situations prove that, even in the absence of such support, there can be light at the end of the tunnel. Al-Hussein first risked the escape to Türkiye intending to procure an artificial limb, and then to Greece in pursuit of his dream of becoming an international swimmer.
The Usurped Right to Inclusion in Statistics
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“approximately 37% of the residents of northeastern Syria suffer from some form of disability”
The United Nations
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No one can diminish, by comparison, the suffering of a refugee except for the refugee with a disability. Only someone in this situation could view a refugee’s suffering as bearable or something one could adapt to under the right circumstances. Refugees who have lost a limb face a long journey before they can even begin to struggle for their basic human rights, such as equality, the right to work, education, and healthcare. Before any of that, they must first secure the rights of people with disabilities, including the right to artificial limbs, special services, and accessibility rights.
While being included in statistics may seem like a basic right, statistics targeting Syrian refugees in the countries bordering Syria, to this day, fail to assess their situations in a clear and precise way. As a result, it is difficult to estimate the number of refugees in need of disability services, their exact conditions, and their locations.
One of the most important statistical reports regarding Syrian refugees with disabilities was published by the World Health Organization in 2018. It stated that “there are 30,000 additional injuries per month due to military action, and of the 3,000,000 injured since 2011, 1,500,000 are suffering from permanent disabilities.” A similar report published by the United Nations in 2021, entitled “Disability in Syria: Investigation on the Intersectional Impacts of Gender, Age and a Decade of Conflict on Persons With Disabilities,” stated that “approximately 28% of Syrian residents, who are older than two years of age, now suffer from some form of disability.” The report also shockingly stated that “approximately 37% of the residents of northeastern Syria suffer from some form of disability,” which is more than double the global average of 15%, to whom the first article of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities applies.
The numbers indicate, in one way or another, that around half the people with disabilities in Syria have become disabled due to war. Relatedly, it is reported that military action that occurred, and which is still ongoing in certain parts of the country, had primarily targeted civilian-inhabited areas, with a particular focus on hospitals, schools, and crowded centers. According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), there were a total of 262 attacks on schools and hospitals in 2019 in Syria. To be precise, 157 of the attacks targeted schools, while 105 of the attacks targeted hospitals, with the majority of these attacks occurring in Idlib. This was at a time when the Syrian and Russian air forces were waging a wide-sweeping war against Syrian opposition factions in the north of the country, during which they targeted residential sites and civilian infrastructure on an almost daily basis. Cluster munitions have become famous for being among the most employed by those air forces during that time, and they are denounced by the International Committee of the Red Cross for their great effectiveness in maiming and tearing apart the limbs of those who are nearby to the bombardment site. Indeed, losing a limb became quite common in Syria as a result of these munitions.
Refugees with Disabilities in Türkiye
According to the most recent statistics released by the Turkish immigration authority, there are 3,168,512 Syrian refugees in Türkiye under what is known as “temporary protection.” Most of these refugees face challenges, including unemployment and barriers to access to educational and healthcare services. The United Nations Population Fund estimated in 2021 that 450,000 of these refugees are people with disabilities. However, recent statistics from international organizations find that the number of Syrians with disabilities is close to double that of the global average. Based on the fact that the majority of Syrian refugees in Türkiye come from northern Syria—an area that witnessed the most intense aerial bombardment and the harshest military action, resulting in a higher population of people with disabilities than in other parts of the country— there are likely far more Syrian refugees with disabilities in Türkiye than has been officially stated, possibly as many as 900,000.
Since 2018, many refugees with disabilities have not received the same services offered to Turkish citizens with disabilities. They are unable to receive the card carried by Turkish people with disabilities that grants them access to a variety of accommodations and social and healthcare services. This includes easing legal procedures, free use of public transportation, and support for integration, habilitation, training, continual healthcare, and other services. Deprived of these services, Syrian refugees with disabilities must rely on limited support from local or international organizations specializing in disability or go without support entirely. The facts on the ground indicate that vast numbers of refugees with disabilities receive no support at all.
Support Yourself by Yourself
Realizing the importance of self-reliance when facing the ever-increasing obstacles involved in securing disability rights as a refugee, a group of Syrian refugees with disabilities in Istanbul, Türkiye, launched an initiative to establish an officially recognized and regulated public service body managed and operated by and for Syrian refugees with disabilities. The group was led by Firas Al-Fawwal, an activist who miraculously survived a close encounter with a cluster munition dropped by the Russian Air Force during the 2015 bombardment of the city of Duma in the countryside of Damascus. The munition had fallen in between Al-Fawwal, his younger brother, and their father, and it cost Al-Fawwal his right leg, his father both of his legs and his younger brother the lower half of his right foot. Their organization was first launched under the name “The Syrian Organization for People with Disabilities” and aimed to establish a united voice for Syrian refugees with disabilities, through which they could effect change and receive local or international support. However, before they could succeed in this, they needed to organize and gain experience in social work.
According to our meeting with Al-Fawwal, the organization sought to set clear and actionable goals. Al-Fawwal’s concept arose from a realistic look at the political and economic conditions faced by refugees with disabilities in Türkiye. The Turkish state ceased servicing Syrians with disabilities in 2018 to cut costs, and Turkish non-governmental organizations and foundations also ceased servicing Syrians with disabilities due to political reasons stemming from the organizations’ place within the sensitive political landscape of Türkiye.
Al-Fawwal and his colleagues were clear in their desire not to be handed fish but to be taught how to fish for themselves. With their amputated feet, their wheelchairs, and their mobility and sensory assisting devices, they began their struggle by setting service priorities for each class of Syrian refugees with disabilities. They also focused on ways through which these priorities could be achieved so that the results of their endeavor would not be mere temporary rises in support or “handouts,” as Al-Fawwal describes them. This included gaining administrative and lingual experience, which required career and academic training and habilitation.
In 2018, the organization “Side by Side” was established through the efforts of volunteer Syrian refugees with disabilities. It was launched as a registered foundation capable of corresponding with external donors, and it built several partnerships with public service organizations that supported people with disabilities. Most of the support that this organization received was not monetary but took the form of necessities, such as artificial limbs and assisting devices, in addition to services. The foundation’s volunteers took charge of distributing aid to those who needed it most, utilizing lists created by the foundation that included the names and addresses of refugees with disabilities. This information was collected by surveying refugee areas in various parts of Istanbul.
None of those who worked for the foundation received any compensation. All of them were volunteers, including the executive manager, the data entry clerk, and even the photographer. Volunteer support was necessary due to a lack of financial backing. Moreover, as a result, minimizing expenses was crucial to withstand the political and economic crises in Türkiye at the time.
Over the last five years, the organization has been particularly successful in offering a variety of low-cost services, including providing artificial limbs and assisting devices. Al-Fawwal explains, “Today we can say with certainty that there is no Syrian refugee in Istanbul who suffers from a hearing issue without access to the best of hearing aids, and this was accomplished through the efforts of our organization and its coordination with international partners.” Over the last five years, Side By Side has assisted in treating 2,000 cases of extreme disability and has delivered what amounts to 15,000 services to thousands of Syrian refugees with disabilities in Istanbul and elsewhere in Türkiye between the years 2021 and 2022
The organization sought to expand its scope and the geographical reach of its services, establishing a physical rehabilitation center that delivers high-quality treatment at minimal cost. The organization also established a shelter in southern Türkiye to assist the wounded who arrived from northern Syria. The shelter provides them with first aid, as well as assistance in administrative and legal matters, in addition to providing services related to artificial limbs. The shelter treats approximately 20 wounded individuals every month.
Victims of war with disabilities make up approximately half the number of the organization’s beneficiaries, which is consistent with the previously referenced statistics. This demographic is also unique among people with disabilities because they are either relatively new to dealing with disability or they need extensive and long overdue medical treatment due to the absence of specialized medical centers in Syria.
Victims of war who survived being caught under rubble, those who were fortunate enough to have an ambulance nearby in their time of need—what they primarily lack is an official and societal acknowledgment of their reality as people with disabilities. Al-Fawwal says: “As someone with one leg if I were to enter a Turkish governmental institution today and find two queues, one of which is dedicated to people with disabilities and the other is not, I would be asked to present an identity card issued by the state or the municipality proving my status as a person with a disability. Since I do not have such a card as a Syrian refugee, I would be transferred to the queue serving people without disabilities. This is the lack of acknowledgment that leads a person with a disability to feel discriminated against. Our first goal was to acknowledge ourselves, and we continue to seek this acknowledgment from the biggest social and political segments to attain service for us as a group.”
On the Brink of Shutting Down
Side by Side has been in operation for more than five years and has now reached a stage where its activities and capacity to provide aid have diminished significantly as a result of a total lack of funding. Today, the organization is on the brink of shutdown despite the continued efforts and dedication of its volunteers.
The organization’s experience in servicing Syrian refugees with disabilities is uniquely invaluable because it was never limited by a specific role. By never formalizing its services but continuing to experiment and develop them, it was able to expand beyond the provision of tools, devices, and basic services. As a result, today, many of the organization’s volunteers and beneficiaries can integrate into the Turkish job market, continue their education, and gain specialized career experience. As such, the decision to shut down the organization would not only be painful but a clear testament to the problems of acknowledgment that Al-Fawwal has indicated. Al-Fawwal explains, “Supporting parties often see us as volunteers who lack any operational expenses, as we are not employees receiving monthly salaries, and this is a matter of relevance for donors, which is often negative.”
Between Two Prisons: A Bomb and an Amputated Leg
The question of survival brings the young activist back to the difficult time in 2011. During that time, he carried a collection of videos and photographs documenting crimes committed by the Syrian regime’s security forces against civilians from his city. Al-Fawwal hoped to present this evidence to a human rights organization in Lebanon, so he headed to Beirut after communicating with the organization’s employees there. Fearing arrest, he attempted to flee Lebanon by communicating with the Canadian embassy in Beirut, but he was not granted that refuge.
Al-Fawwal was first arrested returning from Beirut to Damascus, where he was taken to a detention center along with a large group of his friends and other activists who had been with him in Duma, in the countryside of Damascus. Many of them were killed in detention, but he was fortunate to have survived those three months. Al-Fawwal explains that although the experience was “relatively short, there are things that one cannot simply escape from. The sound made by the friction of any piece of metal today hurts me. My body shudders at the sound of a key unlocking a metal door, or anything similar. That sound meant torture, or perhaps death.”
After the first arrest, Al-Fawwal continued his activism, focusing on civic work and the creation of the Local Councils. He advocated for the widespread adoption of democratic principles, including the practice of voting for committees and councils. He sometimes succeeded in his advocacy, which put him in confrontation with the de facto authorities that had sprung up to control his area of residence at the time.
The first munition fell close to him, and it fractured his skull and wounded his neck. Before he could treat those injuries, another munition fell toward him and cost him his leg, rendering him, his father, and his brother disabled. This occurred under harsh conditions where proper medical and humanitarian assistance were virtually impossible to procure.
After the amputation, and in part due to the many painkillers he had taken, Al-Fawwal was overcome with suicidal thoughts. At this point, he decided to flee abroad in search of proper medical care. He was caught during his escape and handed over to the Syrian regime by armed forces. As a result of his activism in areas ruled by armed militias, he amassed many enemies. The Syrian regime’s security forces took him to Branch 293, a Military prison with a terrifying reputation for implementing torture. Al-Fawwal was interrogated by Major General Muhammad Mahla, one of the top military officers targeted by international sanctions due to his involvement in killing and torturing prisoners in Syria. He was subjected to extreme torture, at times targeting his points of injury and the site of his amputation. He often felt the immanence of death, and even today the details of his torture elude him. He says the only thing he remembers is how he would open his eyes for a few minutes before closing them again, thinking that he would die under torture, as was the fate of thousands in Syria.
As a result of several charges, including working as a leader in an organization opposed to the regime, Al-Fawwal was sentenced to 22 years in military prison. Ironically, however, being sentenced to jail was a sign of hope. It meant the possibility of being transferred to a hospital for treatment, a luxury unafforded to prisoners languishing in pre-trial detention centers and torture chambers.
The young man received medical treatment for 14 months across multiple hospitals in Damascus, facilitated by a strong network of connections that had supported him throughout his life. The treatment was costly, the majority of which is attributed to bribes required for him to receive medical treatment as a prisoner. Bribes also allowed him to reach an agreement with his jailors that would allow his departure from the regime-controlled area, towards the opposition-controlled area in central Syria. This would eventually lead to his arrival in Türkiye.
Surviving Through Memory and Dream
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Love was the greatest motivator for survival and determination at every step.
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Acquiring an artificial limb was not suitable for Al-Fawwal for several reasons. The most significant reason was that the condition of the amputation site was not compatible with traditional artificial limbs due to the unprofessional manner in which the amputation had been performed. The person who performed the procedure was a young doctor who specialized as an ear, nose, and throat physician. He performed an amputation not because it was strictly necessary, but because no doctor capable of reconnecting blood vessels was available at the time to save Al-Fawwal’s leg. Due to the war, most of the amputations were carried out unprofessionally and unnecessarily because of a shortage of specialists who could avoid the need to amputate.
Because of the inexpert manner in which Al-Fawwal’s amputation was performed, small fragments that had ricocheted into his leg remain present at the amputation site. He can sometimes still sense those fragments. Al-Fawwal explains, “The phantom pain that I feel today makes it seem like I had lost my leg just yesterday.” The only artificial limb that would be suitable for his condition is a “smart” prosthesis, which would be too expensive and would require specialized care.
Al-Fawwal’s dream, before his amputation, was to travel to Canada to study at the Boucher Campus of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Vancouver. He often imagined the moment he would present his doctoral dissertation on naturopathic medicine in Near Eastern civilizations. Naturopathy was his specialty then, and was so much his passion that it became, and still is his current profession. It is difficult today for the young man to say that his dream occupies the same space in his mind as it once did, after so many years. However, he refuses to see himself as someone without a dream. Doing so would mean surrendering to a harsh reality, while there is still hope for positive change. Al-Fawwal believes the only option is to try again. For him, hope is the difference between two fates: death as a result of grief or drug addiction, or struggle in a continuous one-legged stand.
Love was Al-Fawwal’s greatest motivator for survival and determination at every step. Whenever he closed his eyes in a prison or a hospital, something compelled him to open them again: the thought of his girlfriend waiting for him outside, whom he could not leave behind. She risked her life during the height of the war, giving up her life in the United States to return to Syria and be by his side. As Al-Fawwal explains, “Giving up in this circumstance would be a selfish decision.”
Survival is not a solitary decision; for the young man, his survival meant the survival of his girlfriend. It is more than a change in material reality or geography. Merely escaping war, does not mean you have survived. According to Al-Fawwal, survival is dependent on the ability to adapt to a new life, and regularly answer the question: “Am I able to carry on living?”
In Al-Fawwal’s experience, and that of the thousands of other “survivors” who have faced the devastation of war, survival takes on disturbing meanings. Simply considering yourself a survivor of war does not make it so. Wars haunt those who survive them, and not just in their nightmares and imaginations, their disorders, their difficulties sleeping and breathing, or even in their educational challenges. War can resurface even after its survivors have forgotten the details.
Even today, children of mothers who had survived chemical weapon attacks, such as those in Eastern Ghuta in 2014, develop deformities while in the womb. These children have never seen the war, but they see its consequences in their bodies. They grow under the auspices of a generation wounded in various ways, or as orphans in areas that lack sufficient care and social acceptance. This lack of support prevents many from being able to say: “Yes, I survived the war and it was a miracle.”
