Women and children who went to live with IS in Syria are being brought home - BBC News

Ten years after they left home to live with IS in Syria, Kyrgyz women are being allowed to go home.

1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsSyrian civil warImage caption, Shukur Shermatov teaches repatriated women of suspected IS recruitsBy Eleanora Kulenbekova and Daniel WittenbergBBC World Service, Kyrgyzstan"Welcome back to Kyrgyzstan," says Shukur Shermatov, addressing a class of 20 women. He is wearing a traditional felt cap, but there is nothing traditional about this school. It sits inside two rings of military security and the students are women who have been brought home from camps in Syria, where they ended up after living with the Islamic State group.

The rehabilitation centre is woven into the mountains of northern Kyrgyzstan, and it is where wives and children of suspected IS recruits spend their first six weeks after being repatriated.

Our BBC World Service team are among the first visitors, and like the residents, everything we say and do is closely monitored by the state intelligence agency.

The women listen to Shukur attentively as he takes them through their first lesson. The course covers citizenship, religious ethics, and anger management. Posters on the wall offer tips on how to control your emotions.

As well as the re-education programme, the families receive medical treatment, psychological support, and - for the first time in years for many - sufficient food, water, and shelter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67926617?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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