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I used to wear fancy dresses and high heels...
But, not anymore.
Iím 24. 24 years.
So youíre going to spend a good part of your 20s in war?
Yeah, yeah.
I have to do this for my country.
I have to give what I can give.
Itís pretty important to let the world see whatís going on.
You know, I think nobody knew Syria even on the map before this revolution.
And now everybody knows whatís going on in Syria
and thatís because of the press covering whatís going on.
Thatís really important.
Somebody has to see all this.
Somebody has to know what this monster 15 00:00:58,851 --> 00:00:62,150 is doing to us, and to his own people.
And, Iím making sure that somebody is going to know.
All the people in the world are going to see this, hopefully. See us suffering.
See the civilians suffering.
I mean, itís not a way to do this. Itís wrong.
You saw a man die 5 minutes ago.
Do you worry that could happen to you?
Youíre not thinking in this mentality anymore.
It's just, this is something I have to do.
I mean so many people
so many girls, died in the kitchen
like doing the dishwash or cooking something
and we have like a mortar shell or shrapnel coming through the window, and they drop dead.
So whatís the point? Why should I die cheap?
So I have to go, I have to do this.
Iím not afraid of death. 31 00:02:58,250 --> 00:02:60,750 Bashar
I am Omar Hattab. I am 32 years old. My nickname is Mowya.
I was a civilian before the revolution started
but now I am fighting in the Free Syrian Army against the Bashar al-Assad regime.
I joke that I always keep one bullet left in my gun for myself.
Yes, you must keep one bullet here in Syria. You keep it for yourself.
Itís better than the regime catch you.
I guarantee that way.
You must keep one bullet.
So you can die fastly.
They tortured me very hard.
There are too many kinds of torture.
For example, one time they carried me, two men, one from my legs and the other from my neck
and they threw me up and down from the ceiling to the ground.
The most bad thing is when you hear the sounds of the men being tortured
and you donít know if you are the next or not.
What did they accuse you of?
Yes, because I say freedom.
It is a very big crime here.
You know, they told us in the prison.
Can you imagine another one can lead this country?
Only Bashar can lead this country.
And they believe it, they donít say it like that.
They believe it, that only Bashar Assad can lead this country.
No one can lead it.
Because heís genius.
You see, how he turned the country?
Before that we oh, we feel bad, there is a lot of people in the streets, thatís no good.
Look now, itís empty! You can walk like you want.
This is the genius, Bashar Assad.
Youíre not safe anywhere.
Iíve got my friend, she has been arrested, for so long.
Last week we received that she is dead.
Because she was tortured, ***.
It makes me sick.
Iíd rather die.
Really, Iíd rather die
than let them have me for five minutes.
Before this, all this, starts
before the revolution, I used to teach English
in school.
And, really sometimes I think like itís just, a nightmare, all this that Iím going through right now.
If I go to sleep and wake up, everything will be fine
and Iíll go back to school and teach.
What about this building? Do you know what happened here?
No one knows.
And no one wants to know.
You donít know how many people lived there, and there.
And they have dreams, they have their lives.
They laughing sometimes, they crying sometimes.
All thatís end now.
All that end.
This is the center of the city, you know whatís the meaning, center of the city?
Look.
Can you imagine Wall Street like that?
If the government comes by voting, no problem.
What the people want, I will.
I like the government, I donít like it...
but it must be democracy.
Not from father to son.
And the animals too, hate Bashar.
Look
she feels safety here, with us.
We're not terrorists, like they say.
In this place, my friend died.
It was the first time that he puts on a mask
on his face.
Because he decided to be in the FSA.
So nobody could recognize him.
Weíve got one guy wounded
and he wanted to help that guy
but nobody could cross
to that bleeding guy in the middle of the street because of the bullets all over the place
and the security forces.
But he has the guts, and he went for it
and other guys got encouraged and ran to help him out.
And he dragged the body, and his friends helped him.
Once he got to that point...
one bullet went through his chest
and he, he died.
The funny thing is that
our friend was standing in that corner
and, videotaping the whole thing.
And he didnít know that it was our friend, because he had his mask on.
So the guys grabbed his body and tried to take him to the nearest field hospital.
And they took off the mask...
And it was him.
And he just shouted, ìEhsan.î
He was like my brother.
Heís just 19.
Too bad that they had to hold the responsibility as men
because theyíre only teenagers.
Iím not going to forget this boy.
Iím going to continue to fight, as he did.
Iím not going to give up
even if I have to die
Iím going to do this.
Nobody had an idea about politics here, because we donít talk about that.
Weíre not allowed to talk about politics really, even with our families.
I cannot open a conversation about politics with my mother or father
because weíre just so much scared that somebody might overhear us
and the next day somebody might knock on our door and arrest the whole family
just for talking about politics.
Syria is, is destroyed now. Itís true. Itís true.
But now, weíve got one thing thatís worthy.
That we can talk, and express our opinions about anything.
I mean, thatís really worth all this sacrifice.
Because we had enough.
From not being able to say how we feel
or what are our opinions.
And not being able to participate in this country.
And now, we can.
Weíre going to build this whole country again, from scratch, from zero.
And, it doesnít matter how long does this last.
Or how much damage itís going to be.
Because, really, all the males and females of this country are willing to build it again
and even better than it was before.
Proud to be Syrian.
Because Syria is going to be better, without that criminal.
Yeah. Itís beautiful without this guy, running this country.
So, weíre working on that.
Yeah, we do.
The animal, maybe this cat, is more important for the Americans than the Syrian people.
Because, Iím sure, that the animals have rights in America, more than the people here.
They donít care about us.
So what, maybe if you film three or four cats
and put it on YouTube
maybe one million will watch the video, will see the video, in one hour.
They donít care about the people.
Maybe, after the Americans see that
they will find there are cats here in Syria.
I hope they will help the cats.
Maybe see, oh there are cats in Syria.
So, letís go help Syria.
Donít care about the woman, just care about the cat.
At least the cat is an animal, it needs some support.
People have said this before?
Yes, we feel that.
I know itís not real, but...
itís this close to being real.