![Rayne Rose Mandela-Perry (on the left) and Nodiyala Mandela (right), South Africa’s anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela's daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law, poses for a photo during an exclusive interview in Ankara, Turkey on March 11, 2018. Two family members of South Africa’s anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela have vowed to raise their voices for Syrian women imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime. [Erdal Türkoğlu / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180311_2_29163931_31536509.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Two family members of South Africa’s anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela have vowed to raise their voices for Syrian women imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Thousands of Syrian women continue to languish in prisons in regime-controlled areas, suffering torture, including rape.
In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, Rayne Rose Mandela-Perry and Nodiyala Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law, spoke about their experiences in an all-women convoy which set off from Istanbul on Tuesday to protest human rights abuses of these imprisoned women.
Mandela-Perry said:
My message for Syrian women is that they must stay strong and hope the best will happen.
When Mr. Mandela was in prison he was just positive and telling himself: ‘I am going to go out of here’. Whatever you think, and when you are strong, and you believe in what you are saying, it happens.
We must continue this convoy and keep on.
Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, spent 27 years in prison.
The International Conscience Convoy finished its three-day journey with a final rally on Thursday to mark International Women’s Day in southeastern Hatay province, which borders Syria.
The convoy, which saw the participation of women from 50 countries, made stops in the Turkish cities of Izmit, Sakarya, Ankara and Adana.
Mandela-Perry said the convoy symbolised that Syrian women are neither alone nor forgotten.
![Women of International Conscience Convoy comprising people from over 50 countries, tie their hands to attract notice to Syrian women in prisons, as they gather at a fair area after their arrival in Hatay, Turkey on March 8, 2018 [Erdal Türkoğlu / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180308_2_29120194_31456015.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
![Women of International Conscience Convoy comprising people from over 50 countries, tie their hands to attract notice to Syrian women in prisons, as they gather at a fair area after their arrival in Hatay, Turkey on March 8, 2018 [Erdal Türkoğlu / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180308_2_29120194_31456017.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
![Women of International Conscience Convoy comprising people from over 50 countries, tie their hands to attract notice to Syrian women in prisons, as they gather at a fair area after their arrival in Hatay, Turkey on March 8, 2018 [Erdal Türkoğlu / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180308_2_29120194_31456016.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
![Women of International Conscience Convoy comprising people from over 50 countries, tie their hands to attract notice to Syrian women in prisons, as they gather at a fair area after their arrival in Hatay, Turkey on March 8, 2018 [Erdal Türkoğlu / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180308_2_29120194_31456014.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
She said the story of a Syrian woman who had suffered at one such prison affected her.
“She was arrested together with her husband and she was tortured while her husband was tortured next to her.
“That is the worst pain; to have someone that is very close to you [be tortured], you feel you want to help but [at] that time you are also helpless,” she said.
If Mandela was alive he would have told these women, she said: “Stay strong, nothing is impossible, it will happen, you will be released.”
Read: Bosnian women set off for all-women convoy in Turkey
Nodiyala Mandela said she will continue to support the convoy’s cause, saying: “Anything that brings together the whole world is powerful and I think that after the convoy this campaign is a huge success. We just hope and we pray every single day that it will make an impact.”. She added:
We will make the loudest noise we will roar we will scream until those women are freed from jails, because they suffer every single day different types of oppression whether it is emotional abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse
Currently, over 6,700 women, more than 400 of them young girls, are held in prisons run by the regime forces, according to a statement by the Conscience Convoy.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.