Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS

by Azadeh Moaveni

Leaving to do jihad in Syria became a dignified exit from a life that offered nothing else, Emad said, which made vulnerable young men easy prey for militant recruiters. “Imagine yourself a young kid, thinks he’s a hero because he carried out the revolution. Imagine after that revolution you find yourself respected by the state, hired, doing well. What would you be thinking about? You’d be thinking about getting married. Buying a car. Living your life. Then you have the opposite taking place. You find your life ticking by. It’s now six years after the revolution; if you were twenty-two then, now you’re twenty-eight. If you were twenty-four, now you’re thirty. You want to build a life, but the doors keep getting slammed in your face. When a man gets to that point, he doesn’t think for himself anymore. They think for him.”