As we approach the anniversary of the Rojava Revolution, July 19, we go to the Hol camp where the families of the ISIS gangs live, destroyed by the Rojava Revolution.
After the ISIS gangs that were involved in the occupation attacks were defeated, their families were placed in the Hol camp. Many of European ascent, the ISIS brides who had arrived from Turkey to Rojava are some of these women and children staying at the camp Hesekê city, connected to the district of Hol.
It remains important to bear in mind that those women who remained in the ISIS gang and lived with them for a long time are afraid to speak. They fear that they will be recognised from the little that is visible of their faces, and only agrees to speak to the camera if we film her from a side profile, as this would make it harder to identify her.
Our efforts to talk to the bride ended after an hour-long conversation of encouragement, but we understand that she is uneasy about her speech and the fact that most of what she does and does not express is what she has experienced.
After the camera is switched off, the bride speaks comfortably. She explains what had happened and everything that she’s allowed to disclose.
They cross through Turkey to Rojava easily, as she states. But when they return to the same place to flee to their homes, they are greeted by a border wall.
The gang member we spoke to is a woman named Ayşe Yaşar from Ankara. She’s from Ankara. “My name is Ayşe Yaşar, I came 5 years ago in 2014. We left Ankara. We came to Antep with a big vehicle. We waited in Antep. Then another vehicle came and took us to an empty field. We went down there, walked and passed. We crossed the border very easily. As we crossed the border, we waited in a few places, changed a few vehicles, told us to pass quickly, and ran from a train track. We crossed the border of Antep directly to Bab. ”
When we asked about the women’s duties in ISIS, she said, “Women were not taking part in the affairs. What women see is just waiting for their husbands to return, behind the walls of their homes and taking care of the children.” However, the anger we see while walking around the camp proves otherwise, not to mention the never-ending attacks to the security forces. The most recent, being, a knife lodged in the back of security personnel.
She says that during her time in Ankara, Kurds, and YPG-YPJ were introduced different from their reality: “but after coming here and spending time with them, nothing is as they say. We have been treated well since we were brought here as prisoners. There was no harm to our honour, they are defending our rights. All I ever knew was people living in the mountains. But we live in it now we can see that it is not the case. Although we are prisoners, we are given our wishes and demands.”
“We thought they were a group of people who don’t know anything. In other words, ignorant, abductors and rapers of small children, taken to the mountain taken from their families. That’s what we’ve always heard. But now we see that it is not. ”
NC / Farşîn Sîdar-Firaz Çiya
