VOA慢速英语2020--The Children the World Left Behind

 

"We won't go to any infidel school," 11-year-old Mohammed from Tajikistan says. Other boys in the group agree. The group is speaking with VOA reporters in a special area of the Al-Hol refugee¹ camp in northern Syria.

But Azerbaijani Qassam has another idea. "If they taught us things like math and reading, then we would go," he says.

Mohammed considers it. "If they taught English and things like that, I would go too," he agrees.

Mohammed only remembers his life under the control of the Islamic State group. He studied some usual school subjects along with weapons and Islamic State ideology². He would like to go to school again, but worries the educators will try to undo³ his IS training.

During the final months of IS control, he could not go to school. His family and thousands of others moved from town to town with the militant⁴ group until they reached the Syrian town of Baghouz. Coalition⁵ forces surrounded them there a year ago. They were bombed every day until they surrendered.

"We couldn't go to school in Baghouz because of those dogs," Mohammad says. He directed his words at two young women nearby, soldiers of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF guards the camp.

Mohammed says his father died fighting in Afghanistan. But, the boy says he was a baby and does not really remember him. He does remember his mother, who was killed by a bomb in Baghouz.

The camp is in a lonely corner of the Syrian desert. It is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. There is not enough food, clean water or medicine. Al-Hol holds about 70,000 displaced⁶ women and children. An estimated 7,000 of them are foreigners, linked to IS fighters. Most of the countries from which they came have refused them reentry.

Mohammed knows his future.

"I will be a fighter," he says.

"Do other kids here want to do this, or is this just your idea?" one of the reporters asks.

"Some kids don't want to," he answers. "But 99 percent of us want this."

The school prison

Boys not much older than Mohammed are often taken from this camp and never heard from again, he says.

A veiled⁷ woman from Uzbekistan enters the discussion. "Why are they taking our boys to prison?" Asma asks loudly. "What did they do?"

Other women hear her questions and join the crowd.

The women confirm reports that sons of IS fighters are taken from the camp around the age of 14 and placed in special schools designed to reshape their ideologies⁸.

"It is not a school. It is a prison," Asma says. And it is true that the boys are barred from leaving.

But officials say there is no other choice.

Extremist ideas are growing, not decreasing, among many families of IS fighters. Most now live in horrifying⁹ conditions at camps all over Syria and Iraq. Many camp parents encourage their children to become IS fighters when they grow up.

School officials hope to provide the boys with different ideas, so they can have a good future, says Amara, a security officer at al-Hol Camp. The schools also aim to separate them from their extremist family members.

Their children's only hope

But at the market inside the camp, many women say there is only one way their children can have a safe future. They want the many countries they came from to take them back.

An Australian woman at al-Hol says she would happily surrender her two children to Australian officials, even if she were left in the camp. "They were born in Syria, but when they grow up I hope they don't know where Syria is," she says.

Asma, the woman from Uzbekistan, follows the VOA reporters around the market, repeating her questions: "Why did they take my son? What did he do?" she shouts.

Another Uzbek woman tells Mohammed not to talk to the reporters. He says later that the woman believed the reporters might be part of the group that takes boys to school.

"She said not to tell you anything, or you may use it to come back and take me away," he says.

Words in This Story

infidel– n. one who does not belief in the Muslim faith

ideology– n. a belief system

veiled– adj. a cloth worn by women to hide their faces from men

encourage– v. to express belief in one's success

1 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

2 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

3 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

4 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

5 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

6 displaced   

移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
• He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。

7 veiled   

adj. 戴着面纱的, 隐藏的 动词veil的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• a thinly veiled threat 几乎不加掩饰的威胁
• There was a barely veiled hostility in her tone. 她语气中带着几乎未加掩饰的敌意。

8 ideologies   

n.思想（体系）( ideology的名词复数 )；思想意识；意识形态；观念形态

参考例句：

• There is no fundamental diversity between the two ideologies. 这两种思想意识之间并没有根本的分歧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Radical ideologies require to contrast to their own goodness the wickedness of some other system. 凡是过激的意识形态，都需要有另外一个丑恶的制度作对比，才能衬托出自己的善良。 来自辞典例句

9 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。