Miet Warde | مية وردة

When I was only 15 years old the arab spring shook dictatorships around the Mediterranean. I hurried out to join the crowds in demonstrations on the streets of Banyas. This was the first time I was thrown in political prison. In my last year of high school, I was again arrested for my political views together with three of my cousins. We were tortured, our nails were pulled out, we were hung up in the ceilings and electrocuted and mutilated. But the worst part was that we were forced to turn on eachother. Three years of constant relocation to various prisons around Syria followed. My cousins died shortly after we arrived in one of the most feared prisons in the world: Sednaya, in the outskirts of Damascus. I was dying from malnutrition and tuberculosis when my mother managed to bribe an army official for my release. During my time in captivity, both my father and two of my brothers had been executed during an attack on our village. At the time of my release I was a walking skeleton, weighing only 34 kilograms. Mother decided that I had to leave the country to get treatment and my little brother Ali, at the time only eleven, was chosen to aid me in my voyage to safety. The future, however, looks bright. I have just finished Swedish highschool and am now pressing on to University studies. My brother and I were early on introduced to Swedish society. Thanks to staying with a Swedish foster family, we have learned all about an entirely new culture, a secularized society and a new language. Alongside studying, I have held countless lectures across Sweden and Norway about my experiences. Having recently been admitted to the finals of the Swedish lecturers’ organisation Talarforum’s competition, I continue to hold talks in both private companies, schools, and municipalities around the world. I see it as my mission to bare witness to not only the atrocities of the Syrian war, but also the optimism and will to life that has by necessity stemmed from it.