来自IS的伊拉克难民讲述他们的经历

AS IT IS 2016-04-19 Iraqi Refugees From IS Share Their Stories 来自IS的伊拉克难民讲述他们的经历

A few days ago, a man named Arif ran barefoot with his family from an Iraqi village as American fighter jets dropped bombs from above.

They walked 25 kilometers through deserts and valleys. They crossed fields filled with landmines¹.

After more than a year and half of living under the Islamic State, Arif and his family were finally free.

They are not alone. Arif and his family have joined 6,000 others in a small Kurdish-run camp. The camp is built on rocks and mud. It is there to take in villagers fleeing the Islamic State as the Iraqi army started its push to retake the area south of Mosul.?

Life under Islamic State Rule

From interviews with five men, we learn what life was like under the Islamic State. Some of the men are single, some are fathers, and some are only teenagers. Most of them did not give their full names. They said they fear IS will hurt their relatives left behind.

The men said they were beaten if they were found with cigarettes. They were fined or whipped if their beards were not long enough. They were fined or whipped if their female relatives did not hide their faces fully² with a niqab, or black cloth. And children in school were taught how to count with bullets.

Arif is a former Iraqi military man himself. He was one of many Sunnis who stayed in their village when the largely Sunni extremist group Islamic State took over in 2014.?

Lack of jobs and money

Arif is like several of the men who risked their lives to reach this camp. He described a difficult life in his village that soon became unlivable. There were few jobs. And the jobs that were available were badly paid or dangerous. Families were running out of money. 

IS was running out money, too. So, the militants³ demanded money from people with threats of physical harm. The men said IS members forced former Iraqi police officers to pay a $2,000 fee or be killed.

Ahmed is another refugee living in the camp. He said most IS members get paid very little, about 60,000 dinar, or $50, a month. So they smuggle⁴ people to get money for themselves.

In Iraq, a pack of cigarettes usually costs 500 dinar, or 50 cents. Under IS, Arif said, it costs 5,000 dinar, or $5.

He added that an IS member would convince you to sell cigarettes in the neighborhood. Once you began selling them, they sent another IS member to take the cigarettes and all the money you had made. 

Among the crowd of men is teenager Saifuddin Mohamed. He said that IS took him and beat him badly for selling cigarettes. “It was a warning,” he said. “After that, I stayed home.”?

Breakdown⁵ of education system

Schools also cost money under the Islamic State’s rule. Many villagers did not have enough money to pay and their children stayed at home.

Ahmed Saleh Mohammed is from Kudela village. He said IS schools only teach about "bombs, how to use guns, how to identify tanks and weaponry."

Saleh Mohammed said IS cared less about the children in villages. But in the cities, they forced children to attend IS-run schools.

Wearing a jersey⁶, Saleh said when they tried to play football, the militants would “come and shoot rounds in the air just to keep us from playing.”

Rule by force

Saleh Mohammed worked as an ambulance driver.

"I have not received a salary for a year and a half, so it was extremely difficult to support my family. There are no salaries," he said.

He tried to sell mobile phones to support his family. But after a while, he said, no one in his community had any money to buy anything.

The IS also demanded car owners to register their vehicles. Saleh did not have enough money to pay. At that point, he said, he could neither drive the car nor sell it.

Enforcement of Islamic State rules

The Islamic sects⁷ known as Sunni and Shi’ite have been in conflict long before the rise of IS. Now the Islamic State has declared its Sunni extremist version of an Islam as the rule of law it will use.

IS claims it will use this form of Islamic law to create a caliphate across Iraq and Syria.

Some of the conservative Sunni villagers see life under IS control as normal.

"No one from IS actually did anything to harm us," said a female relative of Saifuddin Mohamed.

"They gave us orders to wear the niqab and we followed it.”

She said IS gave poor families like hers 50,000 dinar a month. That is equal to $40. But it was not enough.

"The biggest problem we had was financial. We could not support ourselves. And this applies to most of the families in our village. Men were sitting at home without jobs, we could not feed our children -- and the bombings, that is why we left."

Resistance was dangerous

The men talked about how the Islamic State was quick to punish anyone who spoke⁸ against their rules. People who disobeyed or protested would disappear

"My brother-in-law was taken by IS a year or so ago. He was a former military commander. No one knows where he is. We don't know if he is in prison or dead,” said one young man, standing⁹ outside the camp mosque¹⁰.

After a person disappeared, he said, the family of that person would get a single document. The document would state the person was dead. But, the young man said, sometimes a family would get that paper, and the missing family member actually returned.

"They don't want people constantly asking, where is my brother? Where is my brother-in-law?'"

Words in This Story

barefoot – adv. without shoes

jet(s) – n. a fast airplane that has one or more jet engines

beard(s) – n. the hair that grows on a man's cheeks and chin

smuggle – v. to move someone or something from one country into another illegally and secretly

jersey – n. a loose shirt worn by a member of a sports team as part of a uniform

round(s) – n. a shot fired from a weapon

ambulance – n. a vehicle used for taking hurt or sick people to the hospital especially in emergencies

salary – n. an amount of money that an employee is paid each year

mosque – n. a building that is used for Muslim religious services

1 landmines   

潜在的冲突； 地雷，投伞水雷( landmine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The treaty bans the use production and trade of landmines. 该条约规定，禁止使用地雷相关产品及贸易。
• One of the weapon's of special concern was landmines. 在引起人们特别关注的武器中就有地雷。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

5 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

6 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

7 sects   

n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had subdued the religious sects, cleaned up Saigon. 他压服了宗教派别，刷新了西贡的面貌。 来自辞典例句

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。