@ab_hoops: He stood on a box in a cell in Abu Ghraib, wires clipped to his trembling hands, a black hood suffocating the air from his lungs. American soldiers told him if he slipped, the electricity would rip through his veins, but the wires were dead; the terror was not. His left shoulder was already shattered from rifle butts, his body torn by beatings and dog bites, but what truly broke him was the shame: naked, humiliated, mocked by grinning guards who posed for photos like tourists beside his suffering. His name was Ali Shallal al-Qaisi - a soccer coach once loved by his community, now paralyzed, half his body refusing to obey him because of the shocks they forced through his skin. He did not die in that cell, but something in him did: a quiet faith in humanity. He spent the years after his release telling the world about the freedom they promised and the dignity they stole, so that when we see that hooded figure, we remember: his body carried the cost of someone else's democracy. Ali Shallal has said in interviews: "They tortured us not to get information, but to break us. To show they could do anything to an Arab, to a Muslim, to a human - and no one would stop them." The world saw the photo, felt sick for a day, then moved on. But he lives on, body trembling, voice raw, still telling whoever will listen: freedom was never free-They called it freedom but I paid for it with my silence, my pain, my shame. And in the end, it was never mine. #fyp #islam #iraq #america #torture

Abdullah

Open In TikTok:

Region: US

Saturday 18 October 2025 15:22:10 GMT