French ISIS Brides in Syrian Camp Plead for Return, Face Legal Uncertainty

In his Syrian journey, Charles Villa, the Brut media reporter, first visited one of the Kurdish prisons near Hassaké, in northern Syria, where some 5,000 alleged Daesh members are crammed, before going to the Al-Hol refugee camp. Here, the widows of jihadists and their children are held in precarious conditions.

Dressed in a niqab and in the "20 to 35 age" bracket, these French women who had gone to Syria to find a husband, are, according to their statements, from "Paris to Marseille". Confined to this place, where they admit to suffering many deprivations, they denounce the lack of humanitarian associations at their bedside. "No doctor, no hospital," fumes one of these French women of Daesh, who is outraged by the human rights violations by the terrorist group.

They remain nonetheless nostalgic for their life under the caliphate, reveals the same source. "Frankly, it was good, we lived well, with our husbands, our children... There were parks, hospitals, schools... It was normal life, like in France in fact, except that we could live our Islam in peace," they recall.

According to these women, "it’s when the coalition started attacking Raqqa that people started fleeing," leading to the deterioration of the situation. Wanting to close this dark chapter of their lives, they now reject any affiliation with the Islamic State group whose ideology, according to them, does not reflect the true values of Islam. "The beheadings, they made a big propaganda out of it and everything... Seeing someone get beheaded, it’s not natural. Obviously, it’s shocking."

However, they display a certain pride in their participation in this jihadist "adventure" and refuse to submit to any repentance. Better, they are outraged that France asks them to "justify acts" and "answer for certain crimes" that they have "not committed". They all wish to return to their country, "provided they do not have to go through a judicial spiral that will do us more harm than these five years of war".