The Raqqa Diaries: Escape from Islamic State - Hardcover

Samer; Coelho, Scott; Thomson, Mike

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1566560055 ISBN 13: 9781566560054

Publisher: Interlink Books, 2017

Synopsis

An incredibly brave account of life inside one of the most isolated and fear ridden cities in the world.
The Raqqa Diaries began as a series of short broadcasts on BBC Radio 4's Today Program. Now one of the most isolated and fear ridden cities on earth, no-one is allowed to speak to western journalists or leave Raqqa, without ISIS's permission. Those caught breaking the rules face death by beheading.
Despite this, the BBC's Mike Thomson, with the help of the BBC Arabic Service, found a young man who is willing to risk his life to tell the world what is happening in his city. Part of a small anti-ISIS activist group, the diaries were written, encrypted, and sent to a third country before being translated.
The diarists father is killed and mother badly injured during an air strike; he is sentenced to 40 lashes for speaking out against a beheading; he sees a woman stoned to death. They show how every aspect of life is impactedfrom the spiraling costs of food to dictating the acceptable length of a persons pants.
At one point, the sale of televisions is banned. As Samer says, it seems its not enough to stop us talking to the outside world, now we cant even look at it. Having seen friends and relatives butchered, his communitys life shattered, and the local economy ruined by these hate-fuelled extremists, Samer believes hes fighting back by telling the world what is happening to his beloved city.
Raw, direct, and profoundly affecting, The Raqqa Diaries is an important book by a brave young man, which allows unprecedented access to the brutal conditions that many Syrians are living under.

About this title

About the Author

Samer is 24 years old. Having escaped from Raqqa he is living in a refugee camp in northern Syria.

Review

"The fact that Samer was able, and indeed brave enough, to communicate with the outside world is an inspirational victory over bullies and oppressors. In the context of Islamic State's brutality Samer's quiet voice becomes a roar, a roar of defiance. His remarkably balanced account of terrible things and terrible times is the sound of civilisation. A clarion call to all of us that we should not give up. Somewhere there is a voice in the wreckage." -- Michael Palin
"This should be compulsory reading for all who care about the horror of Syria. Especially those who control its fate." -- John Humphrys
"Remarkable . . . We owe it to the author - and to all those who have died - to read his account of the evil cruelty of Daesh and the horrors of the Syrian civil war." -- Hillary Benn
"A powerful lesson in courage and humanity in the face of brutality and ignorance." -- Mishal Husain
"Reading the Raqqa diaries I felt I was walking Raqqa's streets with Samer, my heart pounding with fear. I finished the diary in tears . . . desperate for more news of this brave young man whom I have never met but whom I feel we've all let down." --Emma Jane Kirby, author of THE OPTICIAN OF LAMPEDUSA

Edition details

• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1566560055
• ISBN 13: 9781566560054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 112