Despair, Extremism Fester Among Islamic State Wives
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By
terrorism watch
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AL-HOL CAMP, SYRIA - Five years ago, Sara left her
home in Iraq with her husband to join what was then, for many, a hopeful
idea: a new country of the faithful, the Islamic State.
“There was no question that I should join,” says Sara, after placing a black veil over her face. “I am Muslim.”
In the years that followed, Sara enjoyed life under IS's rigid
religious strictures, seemingly oblivious to the terror group's horrific
actions elsewhere and comfortable among her like-minded neighbors in
Iraq and later Syria.
But when Syrian and coalition forces started closing in on the group,
she and her two sons were forced to flee airstrikes over and over
again, finally surrendering six months ago in Baghuz, IS’s last
stronghold.
Now she lives in a squalid camp in Syria, packed with women and
children that some locals derisively call an “Islamic State camp.”
Security officials warn that many of the women here were married to the
most indoctrinated IS fighters, and that the residents are still
living—and sometimes dying—by IS rules.
Sara
says her husband was arrested after they fled the airstrikes that
killed her two older sons in Baghuz, the town where IS lost their last
sliver of land in March. She is not accused of a specific crime herself,
but she is not free to leave the camp. Clean water and medical care are
scarce, and hundreds of children have died here this year.
Some women here tell us vague and contradictory stories, claiming no
allegiances to IS, a group best known to outsiders for draconian laws,
brutal punishments and extreme public violence. But Sara speaks up for
the militants, saying the “Caliphate” will return and grow stronger. IS
violence, she claims, was a reaction to attacks and poor treatment.
“People say we have crazy suicide bombers,” she says, “but they are constantly hitting us with airstrikes. We have no choice.” Repatriation
A week later, at Ain Issa, another camp that houses foreign IS wives
in Syria , German, British, French, Belgian and Tunisian women crowd
around us, hoping for a glimmer of news about their release.
There is little to tell, as Syrian forces and international
organizations continue to call for countries to repatriate their
citizens, and roughly 50 countries around the world continue to mostly
ignore those calls.
Bouchra Abouallal came to Syria in 2013 to join IS and
was arrested there in 2017. She now wants to go back to Belgium, her
home country, to raise her children in Europe, in Ain Issa, Syria, Sept.
1, 2019. (Yan Boechat/VOA)
Six months ago,
as IS territory was defeated, thousands of foreign fighters, their
wives and children were captured or surrendered. Young Western women in
camps caught the attention of the media, and many of them made
headlines. Since then, the headlines have become less frequent, less
urgent and less likely to change their situations.
“There is not enough food or water and we barely see electricity,” says
Umm Mariam, a French national of Tunisian origin, with bright eyes
snapping behind her black full face veil. "Even living in a different
Syrian camp could be an improvement."
France, she adds, was difficult for her, as well. “In France I was
afraid to walk around in my veil,’ she explains. “People would shout,
‘Go back to your country!’ I was born in France. Where should I go back
to?”
A few women plead their cases near the dusty entrance of the camp,
saying they want to go to their countries, even if they have to face
prison time. Bouchra Abouallal, from Belgium, has recently lost court
petitions with her sister-in-law, Tatiana Wielandt, to send their six
children back to Belgium.
The two women have publicly denounced the Islamic State several
times, asking for their six children to be brought to Belgium, but their
case was denied last spring.
“This camp is like like the Islamic State with a fence around it,”
Aboualla says. “But it’s more difficult than the real Islamic State. At
least there you can close the door.”
In the section set aside for foreigners in the Ain Issa
Camp, 350 women and more than 1,000 children wait for news of
repatriation. Most of their home countries do not want them back, Sept.
1, 2019. (Yan Boechat/VOA)Extremism festers
Securing the closed camps of IS women has become increasingly
difficult, according to intelligence officers, who operate the camps,
mostly from outside the fences.
In the past month at al-Hol, six tents have been burned to the ground
by the “Hisbah,” an IS-styled religious police presence that residents
have created for themselves within the camp.
Four intelligence officers have been attacked, some with knives. A
pregnant Tunisian woman and a 14-year-old girl also have been killed.
“Usually it is because she said something bad about [IS leader] Abu
Bakar al-Baghdadi or they didn’t wear the veil on her face… or something
like that,” explains an intelligence officer, a woman in her early 20s,
who does not want to be named.
At a small shop in a tent a few hundred meters away from the al-Hol
intelligence office, Sadia sells juices, candy and chips. Also from
Iraq, Sadia moved deeper into IS-controlled areas during the battles as
Iraqi and coalition forces took over Mosul more than two years ago.
Her face is not covered and she laughs when asked why. “I am an old lady,” she says. “Why would I need to?”
I start to ask if the Hisbah tries to make her wear a veil on her
face. Upon hearing the word ‘Hisbah,’ she looks noticeably agitated and
shoos a small boy off her lap.
Women in the Ain Issa Camp carry their children, while
boys play, in an area set aside for foreigners who came from all over
the world to join IS, Sept. 1, 2019. (Yan Boechat/VOA)At
the Ain Issa camp, most women do not speak when asked if they must
continue to conform to IS rules. They nod quietly, with some glancing
around to see if anyone is listening.
One 21-year-old mother stands out, wearing trousers and smoking a
cigarette. She is an IS bride-turned-intelligence officer, and she says
she is loathed by the other women.
“Some women came up to me recently,” she says, twirling what looks
like a slender, but powerful baton. “They say I don’t have long to live
in this world.”
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