Transcript:
That evening the Jash forced my father-in-law to slaughter a sheep for them.
The swore they would make us documents that said we were mercenaries belonging to them [to avoid captivity]
They rounded us all up; 8000 of us, men, women and children. They sent message to the army, which came to take us all in military trucks.
My son was about to faint. I embraced him; he kept moaning. I took him to a water faucet to give him some water. His name was Diyar. Lamentations
From behind, an Arab soldier hit me here, my child fell from my hand. I still can’t use this side properly.
My son and I fell on the water pipes. Blood came out of his nose and mouth. The soldier yanked him from my hand and tossed him inside. My son died when they took us from Tobzawa to Dubiz. They took my son away from me, and then my daughter.
My daughter was terrified of the soldiers when they were coming in and gazed at us. She fell ill and became weak. I reckoned she was petrified. She sat on my lap, kept looking at me and called: Mommy! She kept staring at me as she turned pale.
She rested her head on my lap and fainted. I sprinkled some water on her face and asked her: what do you need dearest? She replied: I crave cucumber mommy. I said: we are prisoners my love, how can I get you cucumbers? She said: please mom, go ask the soldiers for cucumbers; I want ice-water and cucumbers.
She was fainting and coming around in about 30 minutes each time as she was talking. Then I left her with one of my aunties, who is still alive today. I thought: I will go ask the guards. What will they do to me? They won’t shoot me dead.
They were eating watermelons and other fruits in front of us. I went to them and asked them in Kurdish and Arabic. One of the Arab soldiers put some watermelon and cucumber peels on a plate, took it and threw the content on the ground and trampled on it in front of my daughter. He said: we brought you here to kill you, not to serve you.
My daughter wasn’t aware of all that. She kept begging me for cucumbers.
My nephew had sent me a case full of stuff. I emptied it in the hopes there would be something to eat. My daughter was about to die, I knew it by then.
There were a few pairs of shoes among the things. One pair was green. I put it in her hands. I told her that’s cucumber, eat it. When I gave it to her, she kept gnawing on them as she was about to die. She clutched the shoe and wouldn’t let it go. She kept gnawing on it until she died. Then her hands became loose and the shoe fell from them.
I haven’t eaten cucumbers ever since; it’s been about 29 years. And I will never eat it again. I don’t even like see it.