Asmaa Mohammed

Qamishlo — The issue of grave exhumation carried out by jihadists of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in the areas they have recently taken control of is considered one of the most dangerous moral and humanitarian violations, striking at the very core of religious, social, and national values.

Jawaher Othman, an administrator of Kongra Star in the Social Committee, confirmed that “exhuming graves, removing the bodies of martyrs from their coffins, and transferring them to other cemeteries constitutes a blatant violation of the rights of the martyrs and their families, and a clear assault on the sanctity of the dead and the sacredness of cemeteries. The martyrs are those who protected this land, and the majority of them were martyred in the fight against ISIS — a fact witnessed by the entire world. Tampering with their graves is an attack on their sacrifices and on the values they defended with their pure blood. It is also an attempt to distort the symbolism of the struggle against terrorism.”

From a religious and ethical standpoint, she explained that “all religions and sects agree that exhuming graves is an explicit offense against religious principles, a violation of the sanctity of the dead, and an insult to society as a whole, regardless of religious or cultural affiliation. The scenes accompanying these violations cannot be accepted or justified by any human conscience.”

Jawaher Othman stated that what is happening today recalls the practices of ISIS in 2014: “ISIS destroyed cemeteries and religious landmarks in Syria and Iraq. The same crime is being repeated today in a new manner and under different names, but with the same extremist mentality that has not changed. They are trying to erase any trace that points to their defeat at the hands of these martyrs by tampering with their sanctity and attacking the values they represent.”

She also pointed out that the Interim Government is among the most implicated leaderships in committing grave crimes against the Syrian and Iraqi peoples. “Its presence in any area has been associated with a series of systematic violations, including killing, kidnapping, mutilation of bodies, and cutting the braids of free women fighters. These violations cannot be separated from the ideological doctrine adopted by those leaderships.”

“The Approach Has Not Changed but Is Renewed in Different Forms”

Jawaher Othman expressed that, as women of Kongra Star, as families of martyrs, and as mothers who sacrificed their children for this land, they reject the terrorism produced by nation-states and capitalist countries. “Tampering with the graves of martyrs constitutes a red line that cannot be crossed. These practices will not deter us from continuing to demand justice and holding those responsible accountable.”

She clarified that the silence of organizations that claim to defend human rights, as well as the silence of guarantor parties, despite the documentation of these violations and their spread on social media, grants legitimacy to terrorism and opens the door to further abuses. It also increases the suffering of martyrs’ families, at a time when the fate of a number of detainees and the bodies of fighters — both men and women — remains unknown.

She affirmed that these practices confirm that the approach based on terrorism has not changed but is renewed in different forms, as scenes of mutilating bodies and cemeteries, looting civilian property, and killing prisoners are repeated — acts “linked to the same extremist mentality for which ISIS was known.”

Jawaher Othman, administrator of Kongra Star’s Social Committee, called on the international community to reconsider its dealings with these entities, to expose their practices, and to stand by a people striving for a democratic, decentralized Syria in which human dignity is respected, both in life and in death.