More than 60 men were held in a neighboring cell. Regardless of the charge, the guards called us all terrorists and beat everyone. The number of detainees went down as some died, and up again as more were brought in. Some were forced to sleep next to corpses before the dead were disposed of. Among the living, our exhausted bodies became infested with lice; we got rashes and skin infections.

I was fortunate not to be harmed physically, unlike a doctor held with me who was falsely accused of kidnapping a Syrian Army soldier. They hung her from her hair instead of her wrists, and kept dousing her body with cold water and shocking her with electricity until she lost consciousness for days at a time.

We were interrogated for long hours, and the interrogators kept us in a state of stress all day and all night. I was blindfolded, handcuffed and dragged to the interrogation room. The interrogator would slap me in the face again and again, ordering me to sign blank sheets to which he would later add false confessions.

During this second detention of about 40 days I was transferred from one facility to another, until I was lucky enough to be released in one of the first “reconciliations,” a cease-fire agreement between the army and rebels. These often resulted after the regime had besieged an area and subjected its population to starvation; the armed resistance had to lay down its weapons and cede control of the area under the terms of the deal, which included prisoner exchanges.

Once I was out, my husband — who had stayed only because of our two children — fled across the border to Lebanon. I was confined to Damascus and banned from traveling. Because Syrian law does not recognize women’s rights, I also lost guardianship of our sons. Finally, a judge granted me temporary custody and a temporary travel permit. So we left for Beirut and have applied for asylum, but we are stuck — without work, and with our children out of school.

We who have seen the inside of Mr. Assad’s jails call on the international community to stand against the catastrophic brutality in Syria, and put pressure on all sides to resume political negotiations based on the 2014 Geneva peace talks. The first step toward a solution must be an end to the killings, detentions and disappearances. International observers must be permitted to visit the prisons to monitor the condition of detainees.

Despite the dire security situation, I intend to go back to Syria if I get the opportunity. Eventually, there will have to be an end to this terrible armed conflict, and I believe that to guarantee their rights, Syrian women, too, must have a role in negotiating any final agreement.

Alise Mofrej is an Arabic teacher and Syrian activist.