The forgotten victims of Syria: foreign fighters' mothers speak out
- 8 years ago
“When you belong to a group they do what they want with you, it’s like a sect, and when you open your eyes, you’re in Syria”
“They fill their heads with the idea that death’s no big deal.”
“These aren’t slackers or loners, kids who haven’t studied. They’re not young people who have been problems, no.”
“We need to be recognised as victims, not the families of terrorists,”
Mothers know. They know when something is not right with their children, when things are going wrong.
Yet most mothers of young Europeans who have gone to fight in Syria say they didn’t see it coming, that they had little idea their childrens’ heads had been turned to such an extent. For that fault some in society have pilloried them as negligent or complaisant and viewed them with suspicion, so not only do they have to cope with loss and bereavement, they have to cope with it alone and with little support or sympathy.
In France despite the uproar generated by 2015’s Paris attacks
the voices of these mot
“They fill their heads with the idea that death’s no big deal.”
“These aren’t slackers or loners, kids who haven’t studied. They’re not young people who have been problems, no.”
“We need to be recognised as victims, not the families of terrorists,”
Mothers know. They know when something is not right with their children, when things are going wrong.
Yet most mothers of young Europeans who have gone to fight in Syria say they didn’t see it coming, that they had little idea their childrens’ heads had been turned to such an extent. For that fault some in society have pilloried them as negligent or complaisant and viewed them with suspicion, so not only do they have to cope with loss and bereavement, they have to cope with it alone and with little support or sympathy.
In France despite the uproar generated by 2015’s Paris attacks
the voices of these mot