FARAH, 17 years old

“In my sleep, my friends tell me that I shout for my mother and sometimes scream ‘Leave me alone! Leave me alone!’”

In jail I was handcuffed, taken outside and tied to a wooden post with my arms above my head.

I was savagely beaten for two days. I remember being beaten with the butt of a rifle, with a horse-whip and with sticks. I don’t know what else they used. They beat me on my back and my front.

After the first few hours, I couldn’t feel a thing. Then I fainted. I must have been left hanging there because when I woke up I was still there.

I didn’t think I would leave there alive. On the third day I was moved somewhere. They thought I would commit suicide, because so many people have.

My grandmother and my mother came to beg for my release. They carried me home. I didn’t move from my bed for a month. My back still hurts.

Now, in my sleep, my friends tell me that I shout for my mother and sometimes scream “Leave me alone! Leave me alone!”