article: She is 22 years old and Um Ahmad is not her real name, but nobody likes to give their real name in Syria these days. Wearing a veil under her pink coat, she lights a cigarette and recalls the first days of the movement. "I used to go door-to-door knocking on women's houses to encourage them to take to the street," she said. Though Um Ahmad presents herself as a member of the conservative Islamist Salafi movement, she and her fellow protesters were not calling for a state ruled by Sharia law. "We were going out for our call for freedom, democracy and a civil state," she explained. Um Ahmad has been detained before and is now in hiding after joining Free Syrian Army (FSA). "The only way forward is to fight this regime with weapons," she said. She joined the ranks of the Ghouta Revolutionaries brigade, part of the Damascus suburb's military council, helping with logistics. "I joined the Ghouta Revolutionaries because this brigade doesn't have a conservative Islamic name, not like the rest of the brigades across the country," she explained. The eastern suburbs of Damascus, known as Eastern Ghouta, have always been seen as the conservative part of the city. In most parts it is hard to find a woman who is not veiled. That is especially true in Douma, a town that has around 800,000 inhabitants. Douma was the first area in the suburbs to witness anti-Assad demonstrations back in March in 2011, only one week after protests were broken up by the authorities in the flashpoint town of Daraa. On 24 March, the people who demonstrated in Douma were not only townspeople but young students of different religious and social backgrounds from across the country. They met at the university dormitory and went out to protest together. But now the scene is very different. "There are various FSA brigades in Douma and most of the time they don't coordinate with each other," Um Ahmad said. "The one that is most powerful and more organised is Liwaa al-Islam. They are the ones with the biggest funding and more weapons". Liwaa al-Islam is a conservative group applying Islamic Sharia. And this is what many in Syria - including many in the the opposition - do not want to see. "They have set up a Sharia court and they prosecute whoever they suspect as an agent of the regime or amongst the security themselves. In most cases they are killed," Um Ahmad said. Liwaa al-Islam is getting most of its funding from Saudi Arabia, mostly from Syrians living in the kingdom. They are also reported to have weapons which they have taken from regime forces. Abdulwahed, who is close to the group, recently joined the FSA after his home was destroyed by government shelling. "We have got nothing else to lose, we have to fight and we only have hope in God to help us topple this regime." When asked about Islamic law being implemented, he did not see a problem in that. "They now have judges who are looking
summary: Um Ahmad was the first woman to join the protests in Douma, a town on the eastern outskirts of Damascus.