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Despair, Extremism Fester Among Islamic State Wives

Heather Murdock

   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.

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