The teachers had also to be reeducated. All the laws of physics and chemistry originated with God when he created the world. All evolutionary teaching was out. Darwin’s name was taboo. The instructions were detailed, the word watan, “homeland,” and all appellations for Syria were to be replaced by “the Islamic State,” “Land of the Muslims,” or “Al-Sham province.” Examples in mathematics that had anything to do with interest rates, democracy, or elections had to go, and units of calculation were now in tanks, artillery, and bullets. All images not in accordance with sharia were eliminated: women’s faces, uncovered body parts, non-Islamic dress.
In order to achieve an ideal Islamic society, as Muhammad had outlined, you had to start with the children. The best boys in each age group were given special training. They watched people being stoned, crucified, and beheaded. Witnessing such events was presented as a privilege, and being allowed to participate was a greater privilege still. Small kids who distinguished themselves were granted the honor of handing the executioner the knife he would use to sever the head of victims; in some cases they were allowed to carry out the killing themselves. Children were trained to spy on their family and neighbors, to be messengers, fighters at the front, foot soldiers, suicide bombers, or snipers. Small hands were trained to make explosives and handle light weapons, rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers.
The extreme was becoming the ordinary.
* * *
Girls received their own special upbringing. They couldn’t be Cubs of the Caliphate; instead they were to be Pearls of the Caliphate.
The Salafist rhetoric gleamed.
What is more precious than a pearl? If you owned one, would you leave it lying around, would you allow it to be soiled, would you leave it outside the door for people to touch, even steal?
No, you would wrap it up, place it in a jewelry case, on silk or velvet, and lock it away so as not to tempt thieves. You would take it out only on special occasions, when the circumstances were safe.
Women were pearls. So beautiful, so precious.
Best keep the box locked.
IS set a whole host of rules prescribing the upbringing of girls. They were to have some education but not too much. When very small, they were to stay close to their mothers, learning virtue by example. From the ages of seven to nine, a girl was to study the Koran, mathematics, and Islamic natural sciences. From ten to twelve, she was to learn the fundamentals of Islamic law, particularly the parts concerning women. She was to learn to sew, knit, and cook. From thirteen to fifteen, she was to study sharia, Islamic history, the life and doctrine of Muhammad in depth, as well as housework and child rearing. Marriage should not occur too late in life, possibly at nine years of age, which was the lower limit, while sixteen was viewed as the ideal.
Young girls were to be raised to “build our ummah, produce men, and send them to do fierce battle,” according to the IS publication Dabiq. The children of the caliph were to be drilled from an early age to obey the caliph and despise nonbelievers, to be inured to violence and ready for war.
* * *
“I know someone … they could rescue them … they could drive in…”
It was Osman. “Hide them in the car … drive them out … over the border … let me speak to them.”
Osman warned Sadiq not to get ahead of himself. “If the Kurds take Raqqa they’re done for. The Kurds are like devils … they won’t spare two black women in niqabs. Nor their children … now, listen…”
Their children.
Two little girls experiencing things for the first time. They toddled around. Held on to the edges of tables. They laughed. Cried. They had both turned one over the summer.
Humans are social animals. From birth a child seeks out human contact. In the very first weeks of life, a child’s brain begins storing expectations, while the mother produces hormones reinforcing her capacity to offer care, intimacy, and attention.
Osman had written to Sadiq: “When they have children they will come to their senses.”
But not Ayan and Leila.
In the eye of the storm, life went on. When the men were at the front, the women stayed at home. At mealtimes they sat around large plastic sheets, eating from the same platter, with children playing around them.
For infants and toddlers it is the small world around them that matters. Even under extreme conditions, children can feel safe as long as their routines are maintained, as long as the grown-ups are not out of whack.
At the same time, a child’s brain is vulnerable. Dramatic events and fear are stored in the mind as fragmented images, scary pieces, which return as nightmares and trauma. Experience influences that part of the brain where thoughts and belief systems are formed, where reason is constructed.
For the time being the two cousins were living among their playmates.
But a stolen house is not a safe one. It would soon come to an end. The caliphate would be history.
Two cousins.
With a heavy legacy.
The jewelry box will break open, the silk will tear.
They will discover that hell is here. Hell is us.
If they survive.
THE BASIS OF THE BOOK
It was Sadiq Juma who wanted the story of his daughters told.
“I want people to recognize the danger signs,” he said. “We were blind. We thought it would pass. Now we know better.”
He was seeking better cooperation among parents, schools, mosques, and the police.
For me, the most important question was: How could this happen?
The title came easily. Two sisters. Everything centered around them.
The first thing I did was listen to the family and write down their
