By Bradley Secker, PhotoJournalist @ GME, 28.10.2011

Firas

On the surface Firas seems to be a very easy going, untroubled, typical 22 year old, but underneath the veneer of smiles and jokes there is an abundance of sadness, and depression. He is an incredibly brave and courageous young man with strong morals, and someone who should be admired for his determination to continue living his life. 

            Firas, from a city to the north of Baghdad has been a refugee in Syria since 2005, and is here with his mother, father, and younger brother. He and his family all registered together with the UNHCR for resettlement shortly after their arrival in late 2005. Firas says that he is tired of living in the Damascus suburb , “there is no opportunity here, I can’t study or get a proper job”, for the moment Firas works twelve hour shifts in a cafe for £150 Syrian pounds per day (GBP £2.10). The money he earns here only supports his smoking habit, and a little socialising with his friends. Both Firas and his older brother were active members on the gay scene in Baghdad, but not out to their family or all of their friends; in Damascus Firas is even more cautious about who he tells about his sexuality and keeps it to a close mixed circle of gay and straight Iraqi friends.

            Before leaving Iraq, Firas and his brother were both working with the US army as support soldiers in the Iraqi forces (trained by the Americans). Around four months after Firas and his brother started their work with the US forces they started to receive threats aimed at them and their families. Not long after the start of these threats Firas’s older brother was kidnapped on his way home one evening to their house in Al-Dora, Baghdad. Concern for Firas’s older brother grew day by day as there was no news from any of the militant groups; usually there are demands for money and vehicles agreed as a ransom. The lack of news deeply worried the family, and they presumed him dead due to the lack of information or requests.

            Fortunately Firas’s older brother was not dead, but what followed was an event that will continue to wreak havoc on Firas and his family for the rest of their lives. Close to Firas’s house one afternoon in a main square there was a great deal of commotion. Firas was walking past en route to the shops so stopped to see what the issue was; when he saw several masked men with guns standing on a small platform his blood went cold, Firas knew immediately that this was a public murder by the Sadr militia. When they lifted the cover from a kneeling man’s face Firas saw that it was his older brother, he felt sick. Showing signs of torture and only semi conscious Firas’s brother was not in a coherent state and didn’t see Firas in the crowd. Firas didn’t know what to do, he was frozen to the spot and knew that he couldn’t react as it would endanger and identify him to the gun men, which was exactly what they wanted. The masked men read out a speech about the man about to be killed, describing how he was the worst of the worst, a traitor to his country, from a family of traitors, and worst of all a morally corrupt, sexual deviant; a homosexual. The life of Firas’s father, who worked for the Secret Intelligence Agency under the Saddam regime, was described to the crowd, as well as the role of Firas’s brother in assisting the foreign forces, and the fact that he was continuing to destroy Iraq society with his impure thoughts and anti-Islamic homosexual behavior. Firas was concerned that his brother was forced to provide details about other gay men he knew, and that the militia were looking for him and their friends.

            Firas witnessed his brother being shot dead in the square that day. After being shot, the body of Firas’s brother was beheaded and Firas listened to the crowd cheer with pride. Since witnessing the murder of his brother Firas’s hair started to fall out with the shock of what he saw and the fear in which he was then living. He became a very insular, nervous young man who was always shaking, he did nothing but stay in his room all day and night until his family fled to Syria after receiving their son’s body from a neighbour.

            Since arriving in Damascus Firas says that his father and him often have arguments, resulting in Firas staying at a friends house for several nights at a time. His father no longer provides him with any pocket money and Firas believes all this to be because his father assumes that his son is gay like his older brother. He feels rejected.

            Firas’s resettlement application with the UNHCR was processed and approved four months ago in May 2010, and he and his family are clear to move to the USA. The family remains in Syria because Firas’s father is refusing to go to the United States, according to Firas, his father thinks the Americans have ulterior motives, and want to arrest him on arrival for his previous role in the Saddam regime, he doesn’t trust the Americans.

Firas is considering separating his file from his families and going alone.