Thank you Lord they are still Alive. Bansil sisters alive, lose weight, develop itchy skin By Edd K. Usman Published: August 8, 2013 Manila, Philippines --- Sisters Nadjoua Bansil, 39, and Linda, 36, are still with their captors in the mountains of Sulu as of today, their 48th day in captivity. They are alive, though losing weight and developing itchiness in their skin, among other hardships and inconveniences. Fortunately, Nadjoua and Linda have been able to perform Ramadan fasting, with whatever food is made available to them by their captors, said to belong to the “Lucky Nine” armed band, also called “Anak Iloh” (Orphans). The group is said to have links with the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the scourge of Sulu. One of the sisters’ two younger brothers, Mohammad, relayed this yesterday, saying he was able to speak with his sisters last week. “I got a proof of life, my sisters Nadjoua and Linda are alive,” he said, who, together with younger brother Jack, has taken recently to the popular Youtube (youtube/watch?v=zzmjp1qYapM) video-sharing website to appeal for their sisters’ safe release. Several armed men seized the sisters in Patikul, Sulu, on June 22 as they traveled on board a jeepney to Jolo, Sulu. Nadjoua and Linda went to Sulu after four Tausug leaders assured them of their safety. They were to film Sulu coffee farmers for a documentary and bring their plight, difficulties, and suffering in harvesting from their coffee farms amid recurrence of threats of violence on the island. Nadjoua had described in her concept paper for the documentary entitled “Kahawa Armalite” (Coffee Armalite) that it was to be “about a journey of farmers and evolution of coffee in a war-torn Sulu and how coffee farmers manage to adapt and survive up to recent times, left with no choice but to ‘armalite’-pick their coffee beans in order to survive.” She said “Armalite-picking” is a reference to the Sulu coffee farmers’ very quick harvesting of their coffee beans, whether ripe or unripe, because they know fighting could erupt without warning between government troopers and Moro rebels or lawless groups. Nadjoua lamented that Sulu’s coffee products have not gained wider popularity and a bigger market, though “known to be one of the best in the world.” The sisters’ absence has been a big burden on the shoulders of their mother, Mrs. Fatiha Elouali Bansil, a Moroccan-Algerian national. Her four children are all Filipinos. Their late father, Ustadhz Abdulbasit Bansil, was a judge of the Shari’ah Circuit Court in Pagadian City. From Oran, Algeria, where he was a teacher, the family returned to the Philippines in 1982, while his children were still below 10 years old. Abdulbasit Bansil went to Algeria after graduating from the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he married Fatiha. “Our mother is losing weight, eats lightly, because she cannot enjoy her food knowing my sisters are somewhere else in the Sulu mountains,” said Mohammad. “The month of Ramadan, a time for a Muslim family to be together for the pre-dawn meal (Suhoor) and for the breaking of the fast (Iftar) at sunset, has made it more painful for our mother,” he said. “Our mother always wonders whether my sisters are safe, and able to eat and perform fasting. She hopes that they were at home performing the Ramadan worship together,” said Mohammad. She is always hopeful her daughter would soon be freed, safe and unharmed. Mohammad said he knows the government and some non-governmental groups are doing something silently to set them free. In another Ramadan story, it relates the experience of a former professor at the De La Salle University, Yusoph Ledesma, a “Balik-Islam” since 2001. He was a former Catholic. In 2001 he embraced Islam and had his first Ramadan. As the only Muslim in his family, Ledesma said performing Ramadan, particularly taking the pre-dawn Suhoor, “is a lonely one.” What he does he said is “micro-wave my food” every Suhoor time. In a conversation with the Manila Bulletin, Ledesma recalled the early years of his joining Islam. “I was ostracized (by my family); you get the short end in dividing a property,” he said. Many wondered why he taught in a Catholic school but left his Christian religion. Ledesma said there was even a time “when the police accused him of being a member of a terrorist group in Metro Manila..and had to leave (my) home.” “But I persevered being a Muslim,” he said.“To experience the joys and also the challenges of Ramadan, it’s the biggest reason I became a Muslim,” said the former DLSU professor. He said his relations with family, his mother, his brothers and sisters have improved much; even with his relatives that include Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario. “It is not yet like my relations with them before I became a Muslim. But I am hopeful Allah will see me through and be in much better relations with them,” said Ledesma. (Edd K.Usman)
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 07:23:24 +0000
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