Lilav Eli-Tolin Muhamed

 

SHEHBA –Dicle Eli, who had to leave her homeland due to the attacks on Afrin, walked for hours while she was pregnant, she almost died. Dicle then learned her husband had died and she named her son after her husband.

 

Thousands of civilians had to leave their lands and go to Shehba due to attacks of Turkish army and its backed groups on Afrin. Dicle is one of them and she had to walk for hours while she was pregnant and now she is waiting for returning to Afrin in Shehba. Dicle and her husband Eli Kajin lived in Shiye district of Afrin and they didn’t leave their lands until the last moment. Dicle had to leave because she was pregnant and she began her journey but her husband stayed in the district.

 

“Women cannot live without lands; I worship my lands like every people of Afrin, I cannot breathe without land,” Dicle said, “We resisted even though they attacked us for days, we couldn’t leave our lands. We had to leave when we saw barbarism to not be taken captive them.”

 

‘I almost died while climbing to Cebel Ahlam Mountain’

 

Expressing that she almost died due to the attacks on Cebel Ahlam Mountain, Dicle said, “I walked for hours while I was pregnant, I climbed to the mountain. It was so difficult that I thought I would die there. Walking for hours was very difficult for me because I was pregnant. But I had to bring my baby into a safe place. That’s why I endured.”

 

‘My child will follow his father’s path’

 

Dicle said her husband told her, “You are pregnant, you have to leave, I will stay and fight. Tell our child what we faced, the reality of the enemy.” Then she learned Eli had been killed. Dicle gave a birth a son and she named him after his father. “I promised to my martyr husband. My child will grow up following his father’s path. I will tell my son how his father resisted. I will tell him how I climbed the mountain so that he will learn how Afrin resisted.”

 

Dicle’s son is just 36 days old now Dicle said, “He doesn’t know what is going on. He doesn’t know what we are facing and he doesn’t know that his father fell martyr. Everyone should know very well that we will never leave our struggle and Afrin. We are the owners of these lands, tens of our people fell martyr there. We promise our martyrs to realize their dreams.”