Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) Theatre
In a first for the IPM, its team members and two former political prisoners took the theatre stage to present the work at the Berlin HAU Theatre, reconstructing events at two prison sites in Syria.
Three walls: Spatial narratives of Old Mosul
This exhibition explores the spatial narratives of Old Mosul by reconstructing its architecture and revealing how ISIS transformed the area into a vast prison.
Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) Theatre
Feb 25 - 25, 2025
In a first for the IPM this event put the work of the ISIS Prisons Museum on a theatre stage. Team members and former prisoners presented the museum’s content in relation to two prisons in Syria: The Rumaila Prison in Raqqa, an ISIS prison, and the Khatib Branch Prison in Damascus, an Assad regime prison.
The presentation of site documentation, 3D tours and crime scene reconstruction were supported by first-hand testimony by two former prisoners: Talal al-Shuweimi, who spent time in Rumaila Prison during ISIS rule and Anwar al-Bunni, a prominent human rights lawyer who was imprisoned for five years from 2006 to 2011 in Syrian state prisons, and spent some time in the Khatib Branch in the 1980s.
Anwar al-Bunni was instrumental in gathering witness testimony for the Koblenz trial which convicted Syrian state officer Anwar Raslan of crimes against humanity, such as 4.000 counts of torture. This was the first ever successful trial of an Assad regime criminal.
In the second part of the event the director of the Berlin-based NGO European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) Wolfgang Kaleck discussed legal approaches to human rights violations in prisons. He spoke about his experiences to address violations committed under U.S. rule in Iraq in the Abu Ghraib prison and evaluate future attempts for accountability for the crimes under the Syrian dictatorship.
The event was a cooperation between HAU Hebbel am Ufer, medico international, MENA Prison Forum, UMAM D&R, the Prisons Museum, and the ECCHR. The MENA Prison Forum is dedicated to researching prison culture in the MENA region. The interdisciplinary, international network includes former prisoners, filmmakers, academics and activists from various countries.
Talal al-Shuweimi was recounting some of his memories from his time in an ISIS prison on stage. He is one of hundreds of former prisoners sharing their ordeal to support accountability efforts as part of the Prisons Museum’s mission. Here is his longer testimony for the IPM
