This couple's reunion was joyous, and their journey to get to where they are will leave you in tears.
Razan Alakraa, who uses the Twitter handler
"He proposed Dec. 2012. Since: besieged, detained, tortured, made refugee for 1.5 years," Alakraa wrote on Twitter of the tremendous obstacles her fiancé endured. "Today: reunited in U.K."
Alakraa, who is a pharmacist, told The Huffington Post in a statement that her love story with Alhameed begins years ago. Though Alakraa was born and raised in the U.K., her family was close with Alhameed's and every year, she'd visit Syria, where she would see Alhameed and his family. Her now-fiancé proposed for the first time in 2009, however she rejected him then because she wanted to focus on her studies.
Alhameed didn't stop trying, though. He proposed again in December 2012 when he was working in a field hospital that was besieged and Alakraa was working with the Baba Amr media center in the U.K while also studying to get her master's degree.
"We hadn't spoken for years," Alakraa said. "Turned out ... he wanted to marry me again."
While the two became a couple after the proposal, they would only see each other a handful of times before reuniting last week. Following the end of the siege, the pair finally met up in February of 2013 with plans to get officially engaged later in the year. However, Alakraa told HuffPost, she wouldn't see him until more than a year later.
In late 2013, Alhameed was detained by the Assad regime and subsequently endured torture. She suspects that his "double life" led to his detention.
"[He was] studying and completing his speciality at government hospitals and at the same time working in field hospitals across Damascus suburbs and Homs in his free time," she said. "So he was at high risk."
Alakraa was unable to contact him and his disappearance affected her tremendously.
"For five months," Alakraa said of her fiancé's detention. "I can't explain my emotions, I can't explain how I felt. I can only ask everyone reading this to pray for all those missing someone in Assad prisons till today."
Alhameed was finally released months later, but the torture he underwent has had lasting effects.
"He came out and he was battered left, right, and center," Alakraa said. "I look at him with me today and he still suffers ... he is in pain all the time."
After all they've been through, Alakraa says their recent reunion hasn't quite hit her yet.
"It still feels unreal," she wrote. "It feels like he will be taken again. I'm so used to barriers and separation it will take time to sink in."
But despite all the obstacles they've endured, Alakraa told HuffPost she has a positive outlook on the couple's future and is excited to start their new life in the U.K. together. There are big plans ahead of them.
"Next step -- wedding."
Also on HuffPost:
Syrian Refugees Welcomed To U.S.
