Days of torture in Assad regime prison haunt Syrian survivor

Years have passed since Meysa al-Mihabi was released from the regime prison in Syria, however, the torture she experienced still haunts her every day.

"The imprisoned women, including myself, were raped. They [prison guards] would turn a deaf ear although we begged them [not to]. They do not fear Allah," the 44-year-old woman told Anadolu Agency.

Her nightmare began in 2013 when she was arrested over baseless allegations in the western city of Hama and put in a jail where she was tortured and raped along with many other women inmates.

She recalls she was out to buy bread for her children.

"On my way home, a vehicle stopped in front of me and the regime soldiers got out of it. They arrested me and some others walking on the street without explaining anything," she said.

She was forced into the car and taken to a police station where none of the officers listened to her.

"My life fell apart in prison. I was put into a dungeon and subjected to torture," she said, adding she was beaten for hours with her hands and feet in shackles.

The survivor says she was deprived of food and water for long periods.

"My ribs were broken due to kicks amid torture and I suffered permanent hearing loss after my right ear was hit with a bat."

She stressed the persecution of the regime peaked following the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011. Regime officials randomly picked people off the streets in Hama and put them in jail.

The regime soldiers forced women prisoners to take an "unknown" pill that caused severe depression, she said.

Her days in prison ended after a year when a court dismissed the charges against her and she was released on bail.

Mihabi with her five children has taken shelter in Turkey which has been home to more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees following the start of the civil war.

She has left the worst behind, but the days of torture still haunt her and she is forced to take a variety of drugs on a daily basis to cope with her trauma.

Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN figures, while women and children continue to bear the full brunt of the conflict.

According to the International Conscience Movement, an NGO, more than 13,500 women have been jailed since the Syrian conflict began, while more than 7,000 women remain in detention, where they are subjected to torture, rape and sexual violence.

The movement is an alliance of individuals, rights groups and organizations aiming to secure urgent action for the release of women and children in the prisons of the Syrian regime.