The women of IS: Part one
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate", tens of thousands of women and children from around the world - followers of the group as well as its victims - ended up in a handful of camps in north-eastern Syria. Once run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, those camps are now in the process of being closed down by the Syrian authorities.
This three-part series from The Global Jigsaw explores the trauma that led to the prolonged existence of these camps and what the future might hold for their residents. In part one, we zoom in on the tent city of al-Hol.
Contributors: Mina al-Lami, Jiyar Gol, Barry Marston, Mohammed Al-Jumaily Producer: Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.5 | You might mistake these sounds for a small market town, but this is no ordinary place. |
| 0:24.8 | This was recorded in 2025 at the Al-Holkamp in northeastern Syria, which at its peak held some 70,000 people. In the middle of this desert, suddenly, |
| 0:33.4 | there's a massive city of tent to appear, then you go inside the city every element is there |
| 0:38.8 | they had a bazaar |
| 0:42.2 | they had a tailor |
| 0:43.1 | they had baker |
| 0:44.4 | you could see people sell |
| 0:45.9 | stuff |
| 0:46.3 | they talk about |
| 0:49.8 | 60 nations |
| 0:51.0 | having presents in these camps |
| 0:53.9 | some children grew up 60 nations having presence in these camps. |
| 1:03.6 | Some children grew up in the camps, having never seen a normal building, a street, normal shops. |
| 1:07.0 | It's a detention facility that is heavily guarded. |
| 1:12.1 | In January, the Kurdish-led forces that were in charge of the camps withdrew, |
| 1:18.6 | leaving them in the hands of the Syrian authorities. This power shift changed things beyond recognition and brought new uncertainties for the residents, most of whom are the women and |
| 1:24.5 | children of jihadists from the Islamic State group. |
| 1:29.4 | But there were many others with no link to the group who ended up there, |
| 1:34.1 | and that's where the complexity of this story lies. |
| 1:38.1 | The central problem is that it's almost impossible to tell who is genuinely committed to |
| 1:43.5 | IS's ideology and who's just simply |
... |
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