* * *
The religious trail led to several places. First, to Islam Net.
The organization confirmed Ayan’s central position in the organization in the years 2011 and 2012. Descriptions of Islam Net are based on observations made during conferences I attended and on recordings of debate meetings available on their website, as well as on written sources. I also interviewed members and the leader, Fahad Qureshi.
The trail led to the young Koran teacher in the Somali-dominated Tawfiiq Mosque in Oslo. He operates under the name Mustafa but is known to the police by another name, the moniker he has also used in his employment as a security guard. I know his real name but chose to use the name he goes by in the mosque milieu and among friends.
He repeatedly rejected all my approaches. On several occasions I informed him of my desire for his version of the content of his Koran lessons and to what degree he was involved in the sisters’ trip to Syria.
In my attempts to track him down I also visited the Tawfiiq Mosque. On my initial meeting with the leader, Abdibasid Ali Mohammed, he told me he had never heard of any Koran teacher named Mustafa. Neither did he know him under his real name. When I mentioned the speculation in the media over the role of the Koran teacher in the wake of the sisters’ departure and expressed surprise at the name being unfamiliar to him, he informed me that “this conversation can only continue with lawyers present.” When he later accepted to meet me at the mosque, a lawyer from the In Solidum law firm was present. The reason given was that I had made “serious accusations” and had “behaved aggressively” during our previous conversation. The answer was nevertheless the same: The leader had never heard of any Koran teacher named Mustafa. Even though he was a well-known figure in the mosque.
The appeal for information about Ayan and Leila that I posted on the mosque’s open website for women—Tawfiiq Sisterhood—was deleted soon after.
I also interviewed Basim Ghozlan, leader of the Rabita Mosque, in relation to the death of a young woman on the mosque premises. He stressed that the mosque does not endorse exorcism and that it took place without the knowledge or permission of the leadership.
* * *
Sara and Sadiq’s stories are based mainly on what they themselves related to me about their childhoods, youth, and lives in Norway. I have only Sadiq’s version of large parts of his dramatic accounts of his trips to Syria. I went through the details of his story with him numerous times, double-checking and asking him to confirm earlier statements, and attempted to find secondary sources for times, places, and events. The accounts of the prison cell in al-Dana, torture, and interrogation are, in their entirety, Sadiq’s version, as are the days he spent in Hatay prior to his initial entry into Syria. The story of the sisters as described by two al-Nusra fighters on the website Justpaste.it agrees with Sadiq’s account. In addition, the filmmakers Styrk Jansen and Veslemøy Hvidsteen interviewed one of Sadiq’s fellow captives, who confirmed the parts of the story he was witness to. Sadiq’s experiences also follow a pattern consistent with what others have told of their own time in IS detention. Other people who have made the same journey across the border to search for their children, prior to Sadiq’s trip and subsequent to it, also were asked to enlist in IS and then imprisoned as spies and tortured before their eventual release.
In order to gain insight into the various rescue plans, and the desperation Sadiq experienced as those plans either failed or were never put into action, the message logs between Sadiq and Osman were crucial. They gave a unique insight into the operations of a local smuggler in the ongoing war and how intertwined he is with the society around him. Osman is aware of the use of this information and has also agreed to be interviewed for the documentary Only a Father, albeit with his back to the camera. I changed his name.
The logs were written in Arabic and were translated by the writer and Arab Spring activist Iyad al-Baghdadi. He also translated voice messages from Osman and the so-called Double, and I drew heavily from his knowledge of Salafism and its appeal when new information came to light about the girls’ radicalization, in turn prompting fresh discussion.
I benefited greatly from experts in the field, including the writer Charles Lister, the blogger Aymenn al-Tamimi, and Thomas Hegghammer of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, whom I constantly pestered with questions.
Lister’s The Syrian Jihad is a work I often reached for to check the time line of events in Syria and for background on the conflict. Aymenn Al-Tamimi’s blog provided up-to-date information about IS and matters concerning al-Nusra. Shiraz Maher’s Salafi-Jihadism was an important reference. A list of other books that I found helpful is included at the back of the book. As regards women in IS, the literature in French is one step ahead of what is available in English, as is apparent from the reference list.
In addition, I was in contact with the activists behind Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently and also discussed conditions there with representatives for organizations on the ground in Syria.
To a large degree I relied on articles and reports available online. My Norwegian sources include Marius Linge’s in-depth study of Islam Net, Brynjar Lia’s studies of the Prophet’s Ummah, and Thomas Hegghammer’s writings on jihadi culture and radicalization.
I made use of research reports from the Brookings Institution, King’s College, Quilliam, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
The information on the reaction of Aisha’s mother came from the Norwegian daily newspaper Vårt Land. The account about Haji Bakr appeared in Der Spiegel, and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi’s negotiations with IS were published in The
