Uri didn't know a slight difference to her could cause this trouble until the day she was told about force marriage. Living in a Syrian town, Salma, she was a kind, polite, happy-go-lucky 22 year old. The only difference was that she loved a girl and in the hope of her parents support and their permission, she told her parents about it. Far from her fanciful expectation, her mom fainted and Uri was locked up in her room.
Droplets of sweat started to fall and she tried to open the window but the lock didn't surrender. She kept on meandering her room, trying to settle everything in her mind. However, the more she thought about it, the more complicated it got. She found her pillow soaked up with her tears. She was confused, hatred grew on her parents, but mostly to herself. With growling stomach and desert like throat, she spent 3 days in her unventilated room and right before she was going to faint, her parents came into her room and told her to shower and get ready to go out.
She was so happy, thinking they're going out to meet her girlfriend, but that happiness didn't last for long. She overheard her parents talking about arranged marriage with man whom she had not met with 12 years gap between their ages is going to take place in 3 days. She was so shocked and didn't want to believe the reality since she had no idea about this. The arrangement had been made even before she was born, in exchange with money to pay for her family's loans. She was frozen there for few seconds but quickly started thinking about her plans. The first part of the plan that had to happen as soon as possible was to get out of this house and she knew that the family of the groom will definitely look for her so she needed to go to a place where they can't find her in a short period of time.
She jumped out of her window with all her savings, not giving attention to the risk, but to save her life from being stuck with someone who she doesn't want. The first place that came across her mind was the UK, as she heard that it is a very opened country. Without hesitation, she left a text message to her girlfriend, saying she's going to find a way to solve this problem and booked the earliest flight ticket available.
At the same time, in Iraq, another girl called Mia was trying hard to save her life, too. She was from a Christian family, and she was very religious as she was suffering from a disease called haemophilia. It didn't have any cure and she was devastated, but after she heard miraculous news from her neighbour that her cancer was cured after going to the church every day, and after completing the lent. It was like a stray of hope for her and she started thinking the only cure is the god.
Mia's family was spending sweet time together until a group of Muslim extremists came and kidnapped them. They were tied up and were locked in a room. When the guard went out, Mia found a piece of broken bottle on the ground. She intentionally fell with the chair and picked the life saver up. After several times of drawing the tightly tied rope, she won the victory over it. After breaking her rope, she untied other family members' as well. Luckily, the lock of the gate was very old and rusty, so they managed to break it and get out. They were relieved that they could escape, but everything changed when the guards found out that they weren’t where they’re supposed to be. They started shooting at them while Mia's family was trying to climb up the wall. 'Bang', her mother fell, ‘bang bang’, her brother fell, and it was only her and her dad who managed to climb up the wall.Just when the only thing left to do was to jump down the wall,there was another gun shot…and she saw her dad falling down, in a slow motion. She felt her heart breaking down, but she had no choice, but to run away as far as she could with her running tears.
Mia ran to her maximum and found a hole in a big tree. It was just big enough for her to hide her tiny body. Luckily, the kidnappers ran the other way to chase her, failing to spot Mia and the tree. She ran to a bank, took out all her money in her account and without any hesitation, she went straight to the airport. As she had seen a movie about a nun in UK and her dream was to be a nun, she booked for the nearest flight to the UK.
The airport was where the drama actually started: Mia and Uri met. Coincidently they sat next to each other. As it was a long trip and they had long conversations and when they found out that they were in a similar situation. Because they both didn’t have any company, they decided to stay together. Sharing similar concerns and the condition they are in right now made them like best friends. Especially for Mia, Uri was the only person who Mia could depend on as all her family members passed away.
They reached the UK safely and they were sent to the homes made for refugees. They got on a bus to go to that place, and heard a woman screaming.
“My purse! Someone stole it!”
“Did you see the culprit?”
“No. But I think I know who did this!”
Mia and Uri could feel all eyes were on them, when they didn't even know how her purse looked like. They insisted, but soon, the police came they were sent to the police station.
They interrogated Mia and Uri about the incident, but they couldn't answer any question as they weren't the culprits. After few hours, they were sent back due to no evidence that represented them as criminals. After these vicissitudes, they finally reached the refugee camp and they were briefed about how to claim asylum in the UK and they thought their lives would be smooth after it without knowing what's coming for them.
They were happy even though there were rats running around and spider webs every corner, just because they weren't in their country. But that’s when Mia could finally let her feelings out. She started sobbing, thinking about her family and feeling guilty as she was the only who escaped. A soft cry of Mia was the only sound in the dark, calm room. No one, not even Uri could comfort her. The long, lonely, sorrowful night was passing and Mia cried herself to sleep.
When the ray of bright light shone that filthy room, they got ready to go to the embassy to sign for the asylum. Mia pretended nothing had happened, but her swollen eyes could tell the story. Uri tried to ignore it and acted normally. When they got to the embassy, there was an immense line starting from the entrance reaching the next building. They spent the whole day waiting with no food and water and when it was their turn, they were told to go back since the embassy was closing. They were disappointed, but stayed positive as it was the only hope they had and they could comeback again.
Their way back felt different to what they saw in the morning. The trees were swaying leaving huge gloomy shadows, the sound of bird chirping also sounded dismal, and they could hear some footsteps chasing after them. They tried to run to a place with more people and started running. However, just when they started running, a hand pulled them. They started screaming and tried to run away from him, but was taken away to a quiet road where they couldn't even spot an ant.
As a ray of light from a car struck them, they could check the person's face, and Uri couldn't close her mouth in shock because the person was the fiance of Uri, who she ran away from. She just dropped, hoping this was just a nightmare. But sadly, it was real. Mia was confused to see Uri getting terrified by the look of a stranger, but remembered what Uri told her and tried to protect her.
