Since the fall of the Islamic State in 2014, countries from the United States to Indonesia have had to consider what to do with citizens who left home to join the militant group, particularly whether to repatriate them. Those conversations have recently taken on new urgency, especially after the beheading by a Chechen Islamist (whose affiliations and history are as yet unconfirmed) of a schoolteacher in France—an attack that has been followed by more than 40 raids on the homes of alleged radicals.
Such gruesome incidents aside, as countries consider repatriating the fighters who once joined the Islamic State, it is worth considering some of the lives of those who already turned against the group and made it out of the Middle East. Many of those who fled in 2015, when it became clear that the caliphate was not going to survive much longer, now have regular lives with partners, kids, and pets. “The only reminder of my life in Syria is a scar on the leg and a cat called Assad,” said one former member in an August interview. (The name Assad, in Arabic, means “lion.”)
