Khadija is the name that a 25-year old women goes under following her escape from the fearsome ISIS group. She is a former schoold teacher who believed in a better life for herself and her family. Unknowingly and influenced by false promises, she thought that, by joining the ISIS female brigade, her life would improve as they were fighting for their religion and what she had faith was a righteous way of living. However, her illusions were soon to be blasted away by the brutality and eagerness to shed blood of the ISIS members.
Khadija grew up in Syria within a less conservative family that ensured she got a proper education. Upon graduation, she became a school teacher. When the Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government began three and a half years ago, she joined the masses that were peacefully protesting in the streets. ‘We’d go out and demonstrate. The security services would chase us. We’d write on walls, have different outfits to change into. Those days were great,’ she confesses for CNN reporter, Arwa Damon. Soon enough though, everything spiraled out of control and violence became the new normal. Khadija, caught in the middle of what she believed and what was happening around her, felt her humanity slide away from her grips: ‘Everything around us was chaos. Free Syrian Army, the regime, barrel bombs, strikes, the wounded, clinics, blood — you want to tear yourself away, to find something to run to. My problem was I ran away to something uglier.’
It was an eloquent Tunisian who drew her interest to the Islamic State. He talked of ideals and a better future promising that the violence she sees now is due to the present state of war but that will be over soon. Khadija’s cousin helped her bring her family to Raqqa where she also helped her join the Khansa’s Brigade, the ISIS female brigade. The 25 to 30 women in the brigade are tasked with patrolling the streets to ensure that women respect clothing laws under Islam. Those dressing inappropriate were punished, sometime even lashed. A woman named Umm Hamza performed the lashes. ‘She’s not a normal female. She’s huge, she has an AK, a pistol, a whip, a dagger and she wears the niqab,’said Khadija.
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Violence against women is not unusual and it is mostly performed by the women’s husbands. After witnessing such scenes, Khadija began thinking of ways to escape the implacable future that awaited her within ISIS. ”There were cases where the wife had to be taken to the emergency ward because of the violence, the sexual violence,’ she says, shrieking. Eventually, Khadija was smuggled into Turkey but now she lives a life in hiding and fear, bearing a false name. She struggles to adapt herself to a new environment and a new life.