Israel Matzav: Syrians practicing defenestration

Syrians practicing defenestration

And you thought only the 'good terrorists' from Fatah practiced defenestration. It turns out Bashar al-Assad's Syria does it too. Last week, they threw a woman(!) out an 8th floor window.

Yesterday, my uncle's wife was found outside of her apartment, thrown out of the kitchen window, her body shattered eight stories below. My uncle has always been a thorn in the Syrian government's side - he is a past leader of the Democratic Party there, and used to host Western dignitaries such as U.S. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois when they visited.

His two best friends - strong advocates of democratic reform in Syria - were "put in a Toyota" last week. This is code for "they were hauled off by the government and will never be seen again." It is very strongly suspected that the government had come for him, didn't find him, found resistance from his wife, and then killed her and threw her body out of the window.

Afraid of government retaliation, my uncle did not announce the death - he took her body to Mu'athamia (the small town in which he grew up) and buried her next to his mother, and didn't have a funeral. In fact, when he found her body, he was returning from another funeral, and funerals have become risky business in Syria, because Syrian snipers have been firing directly on funeral-goers. He found her lying in the street, thrown out of the 8th story window.

Note that the writer is anonymous (although apparently living in the US) and does not even mention the name of the uncle or aunt. Aren't you glad you don't live in the Arab world?

For those whose vocabulary I have enriched, defenestration is discussed here and at my first link above.

Israel Matzav: Syrians practicing defenestration