In a daring video, a reporter released footage of life in Raqqa, Syria.
Most of the images of ISIL that the world has seen are of the ISIL militants and hostages. A hidden camera, worn by an undercover female reporter, divulges images of civilian life in ISIL occupied Raqqa, Syria.
The woman was filming for a report by France 2 and filmed the streets of what is reported to be the heart of the Islamic State in Syria. A female French narrator speaks in the background of the film, explaining the occurrences shown on film.
Men with guns are seen everywhere. The camerawoman filmed a portion of the video while walking down the street. Assault rifles slung over shoulders of militants are a common sight throughout the public atmosphere.
A man in a car, seemingly a member of ISIS, calls over the camerawoman and tells her, “you have to behave better in public. We see your face. You have to pay attention to covering up.”
The women in the video are covered completely in black niqab. One woman carries an AK-47 on her back while walking with her young child.
“Niqab, forced prayers, no music, no entertainment … those are being imposed. Thousands of women are suffering from this. However, some [women] chose this, and they come from France,” says the narrator.
After roaming the streets for the beginning of the video, the reporter goes into an internet café, which is a small room with a pink curtain for a door and small wooden desks with laptops on some of them.
An online video conversation between a niqab wearing woman and her mother is recorded. She is speaking “perfect French” according to the narrator.
“I am not going back, mom. I am telling it to you bluntly,” says the woman in the video. “I did not take the risk by coming here to go back to France. I won’t go back to France. I do not want to return because I am doing well here, mom … All you see on TV is false. Do you understand?”
According to the narrator, about 150 French women have made their way to Syria in order to “get married or to join their husbands.” Although the reasons are not elaborated on, these French women are joining the jihadists in both ideology and matrimony; “An essential element of the propaganda and strategy of the fundamentalist group,” says the narrator.
Raqqa has been a target of air strikes recently because it is regarded as a major base for ISIS.
