العربيةAs a Syrian woman who would never have to serve in the military, I never had the fear of conscription. But I always deeply sympathized with the men who shared horror stories from the days they were forced to serve—stories from the war in Lebanon and beyond. And with the young men living in constant anxiety, dreading the day they’d be sent somewhere unknown, or worse, end up under the command of an officer with unresolved psychological issues, taking out his frustrations on them.
It was a disaster for a young man’s future—years of humiliation and hardship unless, of course, you had the right connections. A few packs of cigarettes as bribes could make your service a little easier. Otherwise, your only options were to leave the country, endure exile, and scrape together enough money to pay the exemption fee and reclaim your future.
But what I never expected was that in recent years, when the military started aggressively rounding up recruits, the few young men who had stayed behind—those without connections, those who just wanted to continue their studies or work—turned to obesity as a way out.
Some of them gained extreme amounts of weight just to be disqualified from service due to fitness requirements.
Imagine reaching a point where you can’t leave, can’t afford to pay your way out, and your only escape from conscription is to sacrifice your own health.