In Iraq, women whose husbands joined ISIS face severe punishment

HARI SREENIVASAN:

Iraq may have declared victory over ISIS but the war left behind some unexpected prisoners. Hundreds of women who were married to ISIS fighters, many who have young children, are now facing trial as terrorists. Some have already been sentenced to death others to life in prison. NPR reporter Jane Arraf has been in the courtroom. She joins us via Skype now from Cairo, Egypt. First of all, describe what's happening here.

JANE ARRAF:

Well Hari, so this is one of the leftovers of a very long, very bitter war. Now as ISIS came into Iraq and took over a third of Iraq when it came in in 2014, people flowed in, jihadis flowed in, and with them flowed in their families. There were a lot of women who came with small children. And when ISIS was defeated and they were driven back, a lot of the ISIS fighters were killed and a lot of the women and small children were left. They were either arrested or they gave themselves up to Iraqi forces. And they're now in detention in jails in Baghdad. And a lot of them are going on trial.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

And you know one of the quotes that you had in your story was, "any foreigner who lived in ISIS territory is considered to have joined ISIS and is loyal to them." Describe the conditions in the places that they're leaving behind, places like Mosul that were devastated.

JANE ARRAF:

Mosul. Absolutely. And if you look at Mosul and what's left of part of the city, the oldest part, in the west, you can see why this has been such a bitter fight and perhaps get a glimpse of why Iraqis are not in any mood to forgive. Now it's a very complicated war and there are a lot of victims here and there are a lot of reasons for the war. But in between what ISIS did, which is attempted genocide of the Yazidis, the ethnic minority, massacres of Shia cadets, slaughtering civilians as they came and then the devastating battle to get rid of ISIS. So this is a war that has seeped into the very heart of Iraqi consciousness. There are lots of families, lots of tribes that were split between ISIS and fighting ISIS. But as for the foreigners they are, as you point out, being given very harsh sentences even if all they did was marry ISIS fighters or come in with them.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

You mentioned that these are people who have come into Iraq in some cases. What about the countries where they came from. Are they willing to take them back?

JANE ARRAF:

So right now, Iraq is holding about 560 of these women. Most of them, the majority of them are from Turkey and a lot of them are from Russia and then others are from Eastern European republics. There are very few Westerners in this group. They're not the only ISIS trials going on. Iraq is believed to have tried almost 10000 Iraqis on terrorism charges, but these women are coming up for trial now and a lot of them have already been tried and convicted.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

Let's talk a little bit about the kind of unequivocally innocent here, the children that are caught in this. What happens to them as their mothers are sent either to prison or perhaps put to death?

JANE ARRAF:

Well that's the really troubling thing. So a lot of the countries who will take the children won't take the mothers. There isn't a huge rush here for countries to step up and say, yes, extradite these women back to their home countries so they will stand trial. That's what Iraq would like to happen. But that just isn't happening. They are more willing to take the children back if they can find relatives. So when I was in court for instance, and these women were standing in the dock. And it is literally a wooden dock, like a cage. A lot of them had babies in their arms and small children with them. They're basically living in prison with their mothers. They will grow up in prison if their mothers are convicted, and at a certain age, when they reach school age they'll be put in Iraqi orphanages, so it's quite a grim future for them.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

NPR's Jane Arraf joining us via Skype from Cairo tonight thanks so much. Thank you.