A Dundee mum trapped in war-torn Syria wants to return to the city to see the family she left behind.
Jannah Reid (51) moved to Damascus with her Syrian husband in 2003 but they have since split and she can’t leave the country with her three sons until he signs legal documents.
However, he is in exile in Saudi Arabia and won’t reply to her letters.
The former Dundee High School pupil told The Courier: “I will obviously have to visit Dundee if I return to the UK. My mum is still in Dundee so I would want to visit her.”
Ms Reid was raised a Roman Catholic but converted to Islam, before being pressured into marrying a Syrian adherent of fundamentalist sect the Salafee, whom she met just three hours before the ceremony.
The single mum is now stuck in the conflict zone because she needs the written permission of her estranged husband to take her two younger sons, Ridwaan, 11, and Hashem, 10, out of the country.
Speaking from her home in downtown Damascus, she said: “I am meeting a solicitor to try and work at this end on gaining our freedom.
“If I can get Syrian nationality the laws on complete custody may change. Then, in addition, the divorce would become easy.”
The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed since protests against President Bashar al-Assad began two years ago.
The family live in fear for their lives as rockets fired from Syrian army artillery batteries in the hills hit buildings near their tower block home.
Ms Reid dreams of returning to a home she owns in England where she lived with her son Jalal, 19, from her first marriage before they were forced to relocate.
She added: “I feel that it would be highly unlikely that I would choose to live in Dundee again.
“I own a house in Colchester in Essex and, despite the fact that it needs at least £25,000 to make the house habitable, as it has no fitted kitchen, bathroom or heating, I feel that I would prefer to live in my own home.”
Meanwhile, she struggles to support her sons with the wages she earns teaching English to businessmen and students at the Sky Education Institute in the tax-free business zone, across the city in West Damascus.
“I’ve no choice but to work long hours just to stay above water,” Ms Reid said.
“It’s frightening I speak English, I’m a graduate, I can earn decent money for Syria and still I’m really struggling. I worry and cry daily about not having enough money to live.
“I’m terrified of not having enough money to feed my children or even that I might lose my children because of this.”