The last time Fadwa heard from her son Maher and her husband Abdelaziz was three years ago while they were on their way home from the airport after Maher picked up his father who had just returned from a trip to China.
Fadwa said that she was on the phone with Maher who had told her; “We’re in the car and we’re heading back home now.”
Five minutes later she had a gut feeling that something was wrong and called back but got no response. The phones of both her son and her husband had been disabled.
Since then she has not been able to find out anything about the fate of either her husband or her son.
Fadwa is currently in Geneva with four other women with similar stories who also share her pain. They are there to represent the detained and disappeared inside Syria.
The women also share a common anger that the issue of the more than 100,000 peaceful Syrians facing torture in the country’s dungeons for just wanting a better future for their country is not even on the agenda of the peace talks that are scheduled to begin in the city tomorrow.
“Our loved ones were taken away for protesting, for delivering baby milk or for urging others to remain peaceful,” Fadwa wrote in an email calling for others to support the efforts of their group they named “Families for Freedom".
“Some were taken for no reason at all. Inside prison, they are tortured and sometimes executed. I would know - I was imprisoned by the regime myself for years when my children were still young,” she added.
Instances of random detainment, torture and unexplained disappearances have been occurring in Syria since long before the revolution began in March 2011. According to a 2008 report on human rights by the U.S. State Department, Syria was known to have one of the worst human rights situations in the world.
The report said that members of the security forces arrested and detained individuals without providing just cause, often held prisoners in "lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention", and "tortured and physically abused prisoners and detainees".
The Syrian people certainly had just cause for the uprising in which they initially called for government reforms. But with the violent “no holds barred” attitude of Assad, the human rights situation only continued to get worse as the rebellion grew larger and more determined to persist until its goals were met.
After years of being subjected to crimes against humanity, as well as international negotiations and peace talks that have done nothing in the way of helping those being held in Syria’s notorious torture chambers, the families of Syrian detainees have had enough.
“We have been intimidated and told by men with arms and politicians not to speak up. But we will not be silent. We want to move people around the world to join our cause and bring every Syrian unjustly detained home,” say the members of “Families for Freedom” who have gone to Geneva hoping to have their voices heard.
“We are Syrian families demanding freedom for all of the country’s sons and daughters. Our position is against enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention by the regime and all parties to the conflict.
“We will continue to expand our collective effort to include the largest number of families, regardless of their affiliations."
On Thursday while the warring sides in Syria and their international backers meet in Geneva to try and talk peace, Families for Freedom and their supporters will assemble at 1 pm outside to lead a moment of silence in love and solidarity with all of Syria’s detained and disappeared sons and daughters.
Motivated even more by Amnesty International’s report this month documenting the mass executions in Assad’s detention centers, they are hoping that their efforts will help put the issue of freedom for detainees back on the political agenda.
They have notified the negotiating parties of their plans and have asked them to momentarily pause their talks and join them.
Hopefully the Geneva IV participants will accept the invitation of these inspiring women and stand with them in front of the world’s media in order to send a clear message that releasing detainees is a priority and an important key to ending the conflict in Syria.
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