{"id":533563,"date":"2023-01-01T21:18:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T18:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/former-is-families-face-neighbors-hatred-returning-home\/"},"modified":"2023-01-01T21:18:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T18:18:54","slug":"former-is-families-face-neighbors-hatred-returning-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/former-is-families-face-neighbors-hatred-returning-home\/","title":{"rendered":"#Former IS families face neighbors&#8217; hatred returning home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a36e8bbbe700\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a36e8bbbe700\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/former-is-families-face-neighbors-hatred-returning-home\/#Former_IS_families_face_neighbors_hatred_returning_home\" >Former IS families face neighbors&#8217; hatred returning home<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Former_IS_families_face_neighbors_hatred_returning_home\"><\/span>Former IS families face neighbors&#8217; hatred returning home<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>RAQQA, Syria (AP) \u2014 Marwa Ahmad rarely leaves her run-down house in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The single mother of four says people look at her with suspicion and refuse to offer her a job, while her children get bullied and beaten up at school.<\/p>\n<p>She and her children are paying the price, she says, because she once belonged to the Islamic State group, which overran a swath of Syria and Iraq in 2014 and imposed a radical, brutal rule for years.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmad is among tens of thousands of widows and wives of IS militants who were detained in the wretched and lawless al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria after U.S.-led coalition and Syrian Kurdish forces cleared IS from the region in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>She and a growing number of families have since been allowed to leave, after Kurdish authorities that oversee the camp determined they were no longer affiliated with the militant group and do not pose a threat to society. But the difficulties they face in trying to reintegrate back in Syria and Iraq show the deep, bitter resentments remaining after the atrocities committed by IS and the destructiveness of the long war that brought down the militants.<\/p>\n<p>There also remains fear of IS sleeper cells that continue to carry out attacks. IS militants in Raqqa on Monday attacked and killed six members of the Kurdish-led security forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The attack came following a surge of SDF and U.S. raids targeting IS militants in eastern Syria.<\/p>\n<p>Near Ahmad\u2019s house, an IS slogan, \u201cThe Islamic Caliphate is coming, God willing,\u201d is graffitied on the wall of a dilapidated building.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an ideology that Ahmad once believed in. She said she and her sister joined IS after their brother, an IS member, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2014. She married a member of the group, though she says he was a nurse, not a fighter. He has been detained since 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmed says she now rejects IS. Her community doesn\u2019t believe that though, and she claims it\u2019s because she wears the conservative niqab veil that covers most of her face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, I have to face people, and many of the people in this society have been hurt by (IS),\u201d Ahmad said. \u201cOf course, it was not only the organization that did so. We, the people who live in Syria, have been hurt by the Free Syrian Army, the regime, and IS, right? But they don\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She says the neighborhood bakery sometimes refuses to give her bread. Even her own father, who did not <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>rove of her joining the extremist group, threatened a shop owner who employed her that he would accuse him of communicating with IS if he didn\u2019t fire her.<\/p>\n<p>After IS overran Raqqa, large parts of northern and eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, the group declared a so-called Islamic caliphate over the territory. Thousands came from around the world to join. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/islamic-state-group-europe-middle-east-syria-turkey-a8c19f8b731d25f038624e2950da4ce9\" data-ylk=\"slk:Raqqa became the \u201cCaliphate\u2019s\u201d de facto capital.\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">Raqqa became the \u201cCaliphate\u2019s\u201d de facto capital.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>U.S.-backed Kurdish-led authorities battled for years to roll back IS. Finally in March 2019, they captured the last sliver of IS-held territory in Syria, the small village of Bahgouz. Ahmed\u2019s husband was captured by the SDF at Bahgouz, and Ahmed and her children were sent to al-Hol camp.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since, what to do with the women and children at al-Hol has been a conundrum for the Kurdish-led authorities. Most of the women are wives and widows of IS fighters. Thousands of Syrians and Iraqis have been released and sent home, as well as a number of foreigners.<\/p>\n<p>Still some 50,000 Syrians and Iraqis, half of whom are children, remain crowded into tents in the fenced-in camp in a barren stretch of desert. Several thousand foreigners from dozens of countries also remain.<\/p>\n<p>Conditions are dire. Kurdish-led authorities and activists blame IS sleeper cells for surging violence within the camp, including <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/islamic-state-group-middle-east-syria-0d7b750fe43671c39aaa2d346dc07717\" data-ylk=\"slk:the beheading of two Egyptian girls, aged 11 and 13,\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">the beheading of two Egyptian girls, aged 11 and 13,<\/a> in November. Ahmad says life in al-Hol was similar to life under IS, \u201cexcept you\u2019re fenced in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armed militants affiliated to IS still control large parts of the camp, Human Rights Watch said in a recent report, citing camp authorities.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Central Command said it conducted 313 raids targeting IS militants in Syria and Iraq over the past year, detaining 215 and killing 466 militants in Syria, mostly in cooperation with the SDF.<\/p>\n<p>The Kurdish-led forces announced Thursday, citing a surge in IS attacks, that they launched a new military campaign against the extremist group, dubbed \u201cOperation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt,\u201d to target sleeper cells in al-Hol and nearby in Tal Hamis.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all this, Ahlam Abdulla, another woman released from al-Hol, says life in the camp was better than in her hometown of Raqqa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>, everyone is against us. We are fought wherever we go,\u201d she said. She says husband joined IS and worked in an office for the militant group, while she just looked after the house.<\/p>\n<p>With the support of her tribe\u2019s elders, the mother of five returned to Raqqa in 2020 without her husband, who has been missing for four years. She says local authorities have watched their every move with suspicion and asked for their personal information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are scared,\u201d she said. \u201cIf anyone asks, I just say my husband died at the Turkish border.\u201d She tells no one she was at al-Hol.<\/p>\n<p>Saeed al-Borsan, an elder of the al-Walda tribe, says that reintegrating women and children from al-Hol has been a huge challenge, both because of a lack of job opportunities and because residents struggle to accept them. Tribe elders like al-Borsan have been trying to help women find housing and livelihoods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe children especially have faced difficulties, lack of education, and disconnection from society for five years,\u201d he explained, sitting in a room with other tribesmen with a set of prayer beads in one hand. \u201cThey\u2019re victims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Local charities and civil society groups have tried to help the children reintegrate into schools and help their mothers improve their skills to find better jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey stayed under the rule of IS, and many of them are relatively still influenced by them,\u201d Helen Mohammed of Women for Peace, a civil society organization supporting women and children, told The Associated Press. \u201cThey were victims to extremist ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But she believes the women can be successfully reintegrated with the right services and support.<\/p>\n<p>Abdulla says she attended a few workshops but feels her job prospects haven\u2019t improved yet. In the meantime, she earns a little by cleaning carpets and homes and selling traditionally jarred pickled or dried seasonal food, known locally as \u201cmouneh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ahmad got rejected from yet another job. She said she didn\u2019t get a clear reason why, but believes it\u2019s because her husband was with IS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to live with the IS label in this society,\u201d Ahmad said as she let her kids out of her dim house to play. \u201cNo matter how hard we try to be part of this community, to embrace the people and be nice to them, they still look at us the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Chehayeb reported from Beirut.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/news\/former-families-face-neighbors-hatred-181854214.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former IS families face neighbors&#8217; hatred returning home RAQQA, Syria (AP) \u2014 Marwa Ahmad rarely leaves her run-down house in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The single mother of four says people look at her with suspicion and refuse to offer her a job, while her children get bullied and beaten up at school. She&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":533564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/DTtDwLFX5.ibdXbD96A6Cw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/ap.org\/19e631961256fecef5e150455512b33c","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}