This report thunders the untold story of Subheya Hassanein, 48, a Syrian mother whose life was shattered under the Assad regime in Syria. She was tortured in prison and survived death despite being imprisoned in the infamous the 215 “Branch of Death” in the Syrian capital Damascus. Her body left the prison, but her soul remained trapped within its walls. And so did the guilt. After imprisonment she lost the custody of her children — taken from her arms. In the report, she returns to the place that changed her life forever, and the smell of death and torture awaken her memories manifesting as nightmares. The humiliation she endured are drops in her tears.
Yet within her, there is also a mother’s survivor spirit. In rare, calm moments, she speaks out with powerful clarity and strength: she did nothing wrong but to fight for freedom of others, yet she lost her own freedom and the simple, irreplaceable moments of motherhood, like the warmth of hugging her children. Today, she is still fighting for her children, to hold them in her arms once again, still navigating legal and emotional barriers to attain their custody.
As she walks inside the prison, the pain becomes so large it has no language. She describes a feeling of emotional paralysis: unable to cry, overwhelmed, disconnected, as if watching her own life from a distance. Memories return without warning. Fear, loss, and silence resurface. What remains, however, is her will to continue and survive.
The fall of the Assad government on December 8, 2024, marked the end of one of the most repressive regimes in modern history — a system that systematically detained, tortured, and disappeared civilians for decades. We see the images of the destruction, and we hear the numbers of the casualties. This report turns numbers to stories with a courageous protagonist who is willing to share her story. Among the estimated 130,000 victims of Syria’s detention network, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, was Subhiya Hassanein, who spent five and a half years inside Branch 215, the notorious “Branch of Death.”
The editorial strategy centred on transforming a silent, abandoned prison into a stage for truth and resilience. The goal was to create a visual and emotional experience that would not only inform but deeply move audiences, amplifying the voices of survivors, encouraging others to speak up at a time when accountability and remembrance are critical.
Award-winning journalist Jaafar Abdul Karim accompanied Subheya Hassanein on her first return to Branch 215 since her ordeal. Haunting shots of decaying corridors, empty cells, and spaces once used for torture and execution were interwoven with Hassanein’s raw testimony, allowing viewers to witness her confrontation with the past in real time.
The result is a report that humanizes the statistics, turning numbers into lived experiences. It chronicles the inhumanity of dictatorship and civil war while highlighting the resilience of those who survived and encourages others to tell their stories with their own voice.
Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster, publishing content in more than thirty languages. JaafarTalk is an award-winning multimedia format with over 8 million followers on social media. Hosted by award-winning journalist Jaafar Abdul Karim, the program operates under the claim “diversity sparks dialogue,” engaging young generations all over the world, targeting Arabic speaking youth specifically.
Distributed strategically across social media platforms, the video reached millions of viewers and sparked conversations on justice, memory, and human rights, generating over 2 million views and sparking an outpouring of engagement. Viewers didn’t just watch—they commented, shared, and rallied behind Subhiya Hassanein and countless others who endured similar horrors. Messages of solidarity flooded in, urging survivors to hold on to hope to many other women who have endured the same while continue exposing the atrocities that must never be forgotten.
