A group of activists and one Syrian detention camp survivor visited Western to talk about the horrors affecting Syria. Every day people are taken from their homes, jobs, and off the streets and thrown into detention camps run by Bashar al-Assad. Assad is the president of Syria and is the driving force behind all Syrian Armed Forces initiatives including the detention camps.
Mariam Hamou
Mariam Hamou is a Syrian activist and chair of the London Public Library. She was one of the panelists who spoke to students and told them exactly why they need to care.
“The media has propaganda and we need to recognize this. The issues affecting Syria are put on the back burner because they are not shown in the media every day, but that does not mean things are not happening every day”
Just yesterday there were 3 explosions in Syria which received little to no media coverage and Hamou says this is the problem. She says that “coming to universities is important because we are reaching thinking minds who are willing to listen and learn about the truth.”
Hamou compared what is going on in Syria to the disturbing truth of North Korea. She says that the Assad regime is a totalitarian state in which worshiping the supreme leader is the only way someone is safe. These camps are a place where people go to be tortured, killed, starved and treated like slaves. Often times, the families of these people are not informed of their loved ones capture, or murder which Hamou says makes it impossible to grieve properly.
“How can someone heal when there is no body returned to them? The families do not receive the bodies of their loved ones back, you cannot heal when you cannot lay your loved one to rest.”
Hamou along with 3 others spoke to students with the hopes that they would keep bringing awareness to the issues affecting Syria. She says that students are the future and that is why it is important to grab their attention.
