Located just 30 kilometers from Mosul, the Hammam Al Alil Refugee Camp aptly tells the story of the horrors of war. The camp which houses only women and children, reveals the same story over and over again — a missing husband, father, brother, son or even stepson; bringing home the fact that in war it is women who are the real sufferers.
It is here that we comes across Fatima (name changed). Unwilling to speak at first, Fatima is unusual in that she seems to be looking better than the other refugees. Her skin is well kept, she is even wearing a little makeup and appears well fed. It is a strange irony. Despite losing her stepson to war and her husband arrested, Fatima and her family seem, for a time, to have prospered under the Islamic State (IS). The chief reason for this is money.
“They (IS) were paying us good salaries. We got $20 a month for every child that joined them and $30 a month for every wife that a fighter had,” Fatima says. With her, her husband, and her stepson, all in the IS it’s clear that money was no problem.
But today that’s all gone. In 2015, Fatima and her family were in Tikrit approximately 300 kilometers from Mosul when the Iraqi Army and the Al Hashd Al Shabi, known as the Shia popular mobilisation units, advanced towards the town and it was then the Battle of Tikrit took place in March 2015.
“The IS told us to flee and for that reason we decided to go to Mosul. They also said that Shia popular mobilisation units were raping women and children and we had to take our sons and daughters away.”
Fatima and her family fled to Mosul but her stepson was killed and her husband was captured by the Iraqi Army, ironic, because not long ago he was part of the same army before joining IS.
“Before the Islamic State came, my husband worked with the Iraqi special forces. Often, he used to go to Erbil for work. When the IS came, they asked my husband to work with them. He finally decided to join them,” she says.
Fatima fears the worst because after having lost so many companions, the Army is unlikely to be lenient with those whom they see as deserters.
“I tried to prevent my husband from joining the IS. I told him we have a son and a daughter, I told him he had a good job...that we had money, but my husband was too scared and he joined the IS.”
Fatima’s story is that of the many women here. Looking around with hopeless eyes, these women live day after day not knowing what the future holds or if they have one. They all claim, as Fatima does, that after a while their husbands and sons wanted to leave the IS but were prevented from doing so. They ask for mercy from whoever will listen to them.
