Wives of the caliphate: 3 ISIS widows share their stories

Thousands of foreign fighters traveled from Europe, the Americas, and Asia to join the Islamic State group (ISIS) and its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Now the group has lost its major urban strongholds – particularly its de facto capital of Raqqa – the wives and children of these slain fighters face an uncertain future in camps across the region. 

With governments reluctant to take back their radicalized citizens, these women and children wait in the care of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – their status somewhere between refugee and captive. 

Rudaw’s Hunar Ahmed spoke to three of these ISIS widows in Syria to learn what they now think about the extremist brand of Islam they lived under and what the future has in store for them.