Turkey has taken in more than 2 million Syrian refugees since the beginning of the country's civil war. One is now telling her story in an Arabic-language play in Istanbul. Inspired by Syrian actress Amal Omran's real life, "Hak" - meaning "right" or "god" - was written by a Turkish author and then translated into English and Arabic.

Depicting the wounds of the civil war, the main theme of the play is a real story Omran experienced in 2012 in the Syrian capital Damascus. An unknown gunman aimed at Omran while she was in one of the city's main squares. "Amal does not remember who targeted her," says Berkay Ateş, the 27-year-old Turkish playwright. "A 16-year-old teenager took a bullet for Omran instead."

Omran - now in her 40s - recalls the boy's name as Anas. "He did not die, but was paralyzed," she said. "I did not see him when he was shot; he was behind me but he saved my life. My friend saw him and tried to help him leave Syria and get medical support."

Omran lost contact when she fled Syria and moved to Turkey's southeastern province of Şanliurfa in 2014. "I am explaining a 20-minute incident in one-and-a-half hours," Ateş explained. The play was born after Omran met representatives of the Istanbul-based theater group Kumbaracı 50, an organization that brings together independent Turkish theater professionals. Co-organizers of the play are Fundamental Monodrama Festival Luxembourg, Brussels's Moussem Nomadic Arts Center and Globalize: Cologne Festival.

The play premiered in Germany last year in September and is going to be performed in Istanbul on April 1.

Prominent Turkish actress Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu and Ateş are directing "Hak." Berkay met Omran last year and they started rehearsals in August. "I wrote a poetic text based on Amal's story," Ateş said. "The text was translated into English first and then into Arabic."

As Omran performs in Arabic, audiences have to read Turkish or English subtitles. Ateş describes the directing process as "very different." "There is a Turkish text in front of you and Amal is acting in Arabic; we don't know what she is saying; just talking continuously."

According Omran, watching the play with subtitles would probably make the audience tired. "They had to move their head or eyes to catch the meaning, but at the end the audience loved it - at least that is what they told me in Turkey and Germany." There are fictional parts of the text, Ateş explained. "You can say this play is taking place in Syria or Turkey," Ates said. "Omran explains her struggle to survive or striving for freedom during the performance."

Ateş pointed out that he wanted to have a universal approach when he was writing the play: "A 16-year-old boy might be shot in Turkey, Palestine, Syria or Kobani," he said. "This is a story of a human who left their language, identity or race and set off to tell their story," Ateş said. The play consists of seven parts in which Omran tells her struggle for humanity in bare feet. "Hak" will also be performed in Luxembourg and Belgium in July.