Focus
In Hassaké, the children of imprisoned foreign jihadists try to live outside of radicalism
Audio 03:29
In this Syrian center near the Hassaké women's prison, Kurdish women take care of dozens of children who join their mothers, imprisoned jihadist women, in the evening.
© Murielle Paradon/RFI
Text by: Murielle Paradon Follow |
Julien Boileau
4 mins
France is beginning to repatriate, in greater numbers, its nationals who have left to join the Islamic State organization.
But many foreigners are still imprisoned in northeast Syria, under Kurdish control.
In Hassaké, near the women's prison where radicalized foreign women are detained, a center is trying to help children regain a semblance of normal life.
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By our special envoys and
Jiwan Mirzo
,
It looks like a school.
In a prefab, a Kurdish teacher gives lessons in Arabic to very young children.
They are between 3 and 5 years old, bundled up in warm clothes, they participate with enthusiasm and speak several languages.
"They learned Arabic with the Koran, so their common language is Arabic
, explains teacher Shirin*,
otherwise when they are between brothers and sisters, they speak their mother tongue".
Russians, Americans, Indonesians, Tunisians or Azerbaijanis, they come from all over the world.
All are children of jihadists who joined the Islamic State organization several years ago in Syria.
The mothers of these children are now being held in a prison in the city of Hassaké.
They sleep with them at night, but during the day they are taken care of in this center which serves as a school and a leisure centre.
Shattered paths
The teachers, Kurds, are benevolent.
"They are innocent children, they have the right to live a normal life and to get rid of the bad things they have experienced
," pleaded Shirin.
And it is not possible for these children to stay 24 hours a day with their mother in prison”.
In the next room, noisy teenagers.
The teachers find it difficult to channel them.
There is a majority of girls, all veiled from head to toe.
Among them, a 15-year-old American.
Jenny* is originally from New York.
Its history is confused.
A father in America, a mother in prison in Hassaké, an older brother also detained somewhere in Syria and a sister in Roj.
Jenny says she has no memory of her home country, the United States.
All she wants is to get out of here with her mother and join the Roj camp, which is yet another Syrian prison, but in the open.
►
Also to listen: In the Roj camp in Syria, with the families of French jihadists
The Kurds manage to forge links with some of these teenage girls with broken careers.
The complicity is also visible.
But it's not always easy to get these young people out of their radicalized environment, explains Selda*, another teacher:
“We teach them to be free, not to veil their faces.
We explain to them that Islam is not only war, killings.
But when they see their mothers in jail, their mothers tell them otherwise
, Selda laments
.
They tell them not to listen to us.
They teach them to hate us, say that we are infidels!
".
We try to talk to a boy who is sizing us up, standing on a table.
But he refuses, rightly calling us infidels.
Embarrassed smile from the professor:
“He does not speak to a woman, Western”.
Staff advocate for repatriation to home country
In the yard, the director of the center, Hevi* tells this anecdote that sends shivers down the spine:
“Once, we gave fruit to children, we told them that they were going to gain strength.
They answered us: yes, we will be strong and then we will kill you!
»
.
Despite the radicalism of some, Hevi says she wants to take care of these children of foreign jihadists for as long as their parents are detained in Syria, but she pleads for repatriation to their countries of origin:
"They must return home to their countries origin to go to rehabilitation centers because here there will always be this radical environment.
If these children stay here,
she warns,
they will be even more dangerous than their fathers.
They also say that they are going to avenge them.
The solution is for them to be repatriated.
»
Hevi has been running this center for children of jihadists for six months.
The previous director has resigned, she tells us.
She reportedly received death threats online.
*All names have been changed
►
Also to listen:
Return to Hassaké, one year after the attack on the prison by the Islamic State organization
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