![A group of detainees kneel during an early morning Islamic prayer in their camp at the US military prison for "enemy combatants" on October 28, 2009 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [John Moore/Getty Images]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-92477338.jpg)
I know this road. I have its map etched into my bones. I carry scars that won’t heal without justice, without accountability. I learned it in Guantánamo, when the only thing left that I could control was my own body. We were disappeared. Isolated. Turned into silence. Our words were redacted. Our letters were stamped secret. Lawyers were blocked. Time stretched and rotted. No court dates. No real charges. No end. I was reduced to a number in an orange uniform, locked in a metal cage. The US government had already named me. “The worst of the worst.” “Terrorist.” “Enemy combatant.” Labels designed to make torture sound necessary. And torture came. Day and night. Relentless. Mechanical. Meant to break the […]
