Nine days can indeed, be longer than an entire lifetime.
Read the whole thing.
"Nine days can be longer than an entire lifetime, says Nadia, but she can remember every second of those nine days."
"Sometimes they were given nothing to eat, other times just a putrid
egg for six young women. For two long days, they received no water. It
was extremely hot and their captors had given them a single glass of
tea. They passed around the glass -- two tiny sips for each woman. If
you convert to Islam, the men said, you'll be given as much fresh water
as you want."
"We remained steadfast," says Nadia."
"On another occasion, they were deprived of drinking water once again,
only this time their captors put down a bucket of used bathwater. It
tasted like soap and reeked of urine, but they had nothing else."
"Their captors beat them, sometimes several times in a single day, for
no apparent reason. There was a man with a beard who used an electric
cable, while two others preferred wooden switches."
"Sometimes they were
also punched and kicked, and they were repeatedly sexually abused."
"Nadia doesn't give a literal account of these rapes. It is virtually
impossible for her to talk about them, and it contravenes the
conventions of her culture. She merely says: "We were taken individually
to another room, to one of the men." Then she lowers her head, in
silence, awash with shame."
"What else could we do?" she says after a while, now speaking very
quietly."
"She says the men were merciless. Some women threw themselves at
their tormentors' feet, kissed their knees and hands, and -- eyes
filled with tears -- pleaded for mercy. It was no use. The men remained
unmoved. It only entertained them."
Nadia is a portrait of true courage.
This line moved me tremendously:
"I will find this man one day, and I will cut off his finger, and I will take back my ring."