Syria: The roundabout is central and surrounded by cafes and restaurants. (file)
Raka:
A few years ago, Al-Naim Square was the solemn stage for the public executions of Raqa. Today, Nader al-Hussein sits in his new arched design, waiting for his date to arrive.
“It’s the best meeting point for lovers, families and friends,” says the 25-year-old, sitting on one of the rare public benches in the bustling, war-ravaged northern Syrian city.
“Earlier, we avoided passing through it so that we would not see blood and horrors,” says Hussain.
The al-Naim (heaven) traffic circle was anything but heaven when the ISIS group ruled its former de facto Syrian capital, Raqa, between 2014 and 2017.
Residents dubbed it a “circle of hell”.
Jihadists flaunted their implementation of Islamic Sharia law in the square, carrying out flag-raising, crucifixion and even beheading those deemed apostates or criminals.
Their plundering morality police made it impossible for lovers to meet in private without risking death.
“I never dared to meet my girlfriend in person; we only spoke on the phone, for fear that we might be stoned as punishment,” Hussain says.
Two years after ISIS was declared defeated in Syria, the new class is a far cry from the barren dirt mound that hosted some of the jihadist group’s most repugnant acts.
Arched columns have been built around a new central fountain, replacing the metal fence on whose spikes an IS executioner had beheaded before posing for a photograph.
Benches have been set up near the elliptical side pool. At night, four years after the departure of IS, multicolored laser lights turn the square into a rare attraction amid the city’s pitiful and haunting concrete rumble.
‘A place for families’
Roundabout is central and surrounded by cafes and restaurants, making it a popular spot for families and couples alike.
“Al-Naim Square has turned from hell to paradise… Lovers also come here,” says 24-year-old Manaf.
Around him, children run between benches while men and women chat and take pictures. Laughter erupts from a picnic spot as street vendors sell red heart-shaped balloon grinders.
In an unimaginable scene just four years ago, Mohamed Al-Ali, 37, and his wife are sitting together, searching for their three children as they play around an empty pool.
“We never brought the kids here so they wouldn’t see the severed head hanging,” he told AFP.
“But today, the square is a place for families and children.”
Life is slowly picking up pace in Raqa, where flat buildings and IS symbolism are reminiscent of the dark ages of jihadist rule.
It was here that ISIS stoned people to death, allegedly throwing gay men off rooftops and auctioning off women of the Yazidi minority as slaves.
‘Death and suffering’
A few kilometers (miles) away from Al-Naim Square, another infamous yet small roundabout used by ISIS for executions has also regained its clout, mainly due to its proximity to a popular market. is the location.
For some, however, a shadow still hangs over the place known as the “clock-tower square.”
Ahmed al-Hamad says, “This roundabout reminds us of the tragedy we lived in…
“We used to see heads and hands being chopped off and executions carried out with swords,” he says.
Several of Hamad’s relatives were beheaded in the square.
“We were afraid to even pass by it,” he says.
The situation is similar at the nearby Al-Dallah square, named after the large-scale reproduction of the traditional Arabic coffee pot that adorns its centre.
Also a former ISIS penal ground, Raqa residents have dubbed al-Dalla as “the working class”, a reference to the daily wage workers, usually in the hope of being raised to odd jobs. Dot your sidewalks.
Abdel Majid Abdullah, one of the activists, says he will never forget how IS used to display prisoners in cages on a roundabout.
“But today it is a place where we come to earn a living,” says the 35-year-old.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
,