Floresha Rasha is the first citizen from Albania to return from the Roj camp in Syria. A few minutes after we started the journey from Beirut to Tirana, Floresha gives her story to Top Channel journalist Muhamed Veliu.
She has lived for several years as a woman in the Islamic State but the most of the answers she gives are in ‘I do not know’.
Muhamed Veliu: Have you long dreamed of this day to be repatriated in Albania?
Floresha Rasha: Yes, we had eaiting a year to return
Muhamed Veliu: How are the children? How do they feel?
Floresha Rasha: Very well. They’re good.
Muhamed Veliu: What about the eldest son?
Floresha Rasha: Very well.
Muhamed Veliu: How long did you stay in Al Hol camp?
Floresha Rasha: A year and a half.
Muhamed Veliu: How did you manage to keep the children in the camp?
Floresha Rasha: I was in the hospital. The children were supported by the sisters. I was in the hospital. I was in the hospital for a year and a month.
Muhamed Veliu: What happened, why were you in the hospital?
Floresha Rasha: I was injured.
Muhamed Veliu: Injured in a leg?
Floresha Rasha: Yes.
Muhamed Veliu: How do you feel after the doctors’ intervention?
Floresha Rasha: I’m better now.
Muhamed Veliu: Do you need another operation?
Floresha Rasha: Yes, I need another operation.
Muhamed Veliu: What can you tell us about the conditions in Al Hol, when did you go there?
Floresha Rasha: In 2019. March 2019.
Muhamed Veliu: How is the situation with other women and children left there?
Floresha Rasha: Hard very hard.
Muhamed Veliu: What are the biggest difficulties?
Floresha Rasha: Everything is difficult there, living, children do not have the conditions, everything is difficult.
Muhamed Veliu: Let’s stop for a moment at the security in the camp. How did you feel in terms of security.
Floresha Rasha: We were afraid that when they wanted to put us in prison, they would beat us and do whatever they wanted to us.
Muhamed Veliu: The kurd troops?
Floresha Rasha: Yes. My son was taken and kept in prison for 4 months. Not just my son but all boys over 12 years old.
Muhamed Veliu: Where did they take them to prison?
Floresha Rasha: In prison.
Muhamed Veliu: Even though he was 12 years old?
Floresha Rasha: Yes.
Muhamed Veliu: I wanted to ask you about Eva Duman. Why didn’t Eve come?
Floresha Rasha: I do not know, I was not thereI was at Camp Roj.
Muhamed Veliu: Floresha I know it is difficult but in order to move forward we have to turn our heads back. Can you tell me how you ended up in Syria?
Floresha Rasha: I went… . my husband was there before … Diamant… then I went after 6 months. I went to meet my husband to stay 3 months and come back but I could not come back.
Muhamed Veliu: Now that several years have passed, do you regret going to Syria?
Floresha Rasha: I do not know, I do not know what to say.
Muhamed Veliu: What was it like for an Albanian to live in the Islamic State as was your case?
Floresha Rasha: Well, I know.
Muhamed Veliu: What did the rules set by the Islamic State look like to you?
Floresha Rasha: Well, this is like the rules we have in Islam. There was nothing difficult for example. We were housewives at home. There was nothing difficult for us.
Muhamed Veliu: Floresha, can you tell me the circumstances of how you were injured, where were you at that moment, what happened?
Floresha Rasha: I was in Baguz. I do not know. I was sitting and I was shot.
Muhamed Veliu: Were you scared at that moment?
Floresha Rasha: Normally I was scared.
Muhamed Veliu: During the time you were in Camp Roj, did you communicate with your family in Albania?
Floresha Rasha: No, I did not communicate. It was impossible. No phone, no nothing.
Muhamed Veliu: Who have you missed the most during all this time?
Floresha Rasha: My father, the mother, the sister, the brother, my whole family.
Muhamed Veliu: Was it a personal idea for Diamant to go to Syria or did someone else convince him?
Floresha Rasha: I was not informed when Diamanti left. I believe it was Diamond’s wish that went away.
Muhamed Veliu: When he was alive, what did he tell you?
Floresha Rasha: He did not say anything. He said he was happy to be with us.
Muhamed Veliu: Did he tell you that if he were to be killed and be a Sheid (martyr in the name of Islam) would be a good thing for him?
Floresha Rasha: Yes, until he left for that normal thing.
Muhamed Veliu: So he left to fight in the Islamic State and fall as a Sheid?
Floresha Rasha: Yes.
Muhamed Veliu: Do you regret that your husband chose this path to fight for the Islamic State and that he left his life and the children orphaned?
Floresha Rasha: We are Muslims and say this is what Allah wanted… this is how it was written for us.
Muhamed Veliu: Floresha in Roj camp, how many Albanian women and children are there?
Floresha Rasha: I’m sorry. There are 3 families in Roj camp, 12 families in Hol camp.
Muhamed Veliu: How do you expect to return to Albania?
Floresha Rasha: I do not know, I am sick I cannot walk.
Muhamed Veliu: Can you tell me the moment when Gledis, the director of Albanian anti-terror, came to the camp and told you they will take you, we will take you to Albania?
Floresha Rasha: It was a pleasure for me that I always waited for them to come and pick us up and I was normally happy that someone took care of us, because it was very difficult as we were.
Muhamed Veliu: Are there any Albanian women who have remained there who do not want to come to Albania?
Floresha Rasha: I don’t know. Everyone wants to come. I believe everyone wants to come. I have not been very attached to the sisters since we left Bagusi. I was in the hospital. I felt very little in Hol. Only two months.
Muhamed Veliu: During all these years from 2013 until now, what is the thing that has remained in your mind as an Albanian in that foreign land?
Floresha Rasha: I do not know. People. In Syria there are loving, generous, hospitable people.
Muhamed Veliu: Is it true that in Syria you lost your daughter along with your husband?
Floresha Rasha: Yes.
Muhamed Veliu: How old was he?
Floresha Rasha: 16 years old.
Muhamed Veliu: What happened to the girl?
Floresha Rasha: I do not know. I have not been there. I was away in hospital. Two weeks later I received the news that the girl had been killed.
Muhamed Veliu: Where is he buried?
Floresha Rasha: There was no grave there. They fired from airplanes and she was left where she died.
Muhamed Veliu: Does your husband have a grave?
Floresha Rasha: Yes.
Muhamed Veliu: Did you go to visit the grave?
Floresha Rasha: No. We have never been there.
Top Channel
