suddenly you have no life

“I had a dream, built a house, had a career and opened a private firm and now all this is gone,” said Qais. “With all this sectarian tension, I worry that my wife’s family will pressure her to leave me.”
Return is unthinkable. “If we go back,” said Layla “we would have to go through both Sunni and Shia areas. You don’t know who will catch you – whether a Sunni group will catch us because of me, or a Shia group will catch us because of my husband.” She looks down at the ground: “Suddenly you have no life.”