NPR

Foreign Wives And Children Of ISIS Are Held In Syria With Uncertain Future

Kurdish officials in northeastern Syria say they are holding 550 foreign women whom they captured after defeating ISIS, as well as about 1,200 foreign children.
People walk through Ain Issa, one of the camps that holds displaced Syrians as well as foreign wives of ISIS fighters and their children. Thousands of foreign women and children languish in shelters in northeastern Syria, unwanted by their home governments and with no clear future.

Um Mohammed says she was in search of a happier life when she decided to bring her family from the Netherlands to live under ISIS.

"I thought the ISIS 'caliphate' would be perfect, like a utopia," says Um Mohammed, who describes having felt discriminated against as a Muslim in the Netherlands and says the militant group's online propaganda drew her in. "I don't think [life in the caliphate] was what most people expected. I regret going and having, you know, to go through this."

Now she is one of thousands of foreign women and children who languish in detention camps in northeastern Syria, unwanted by their home governments and with no clear future.

Like all the women interviewed

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min readAmerican Government
With Federal Fraud Trial Looming, George Santos Drops Out Of New York House Race
The scandal-plagued former Republican congressman, ousted from his House seat last year, abandoned his long-shot independent bid for Congress. But he suggested his political career may not be over.
NPR4 min readAmerican Government
Why Haven't Kansas And Alabama — Among Other Holdouts — Expanded Access To Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
NPR2 min readInternational Relations
World Central Kitchen Workers Killed In Israeli Strikes Will Be Honored At Memorial
The aid workers were killed April 1 when a succession of Israeli armed drones ripped through vehicles in their convoy as they left one of World Central Kitchen's warehouses on a food delivery mission.

Related