By adopting a new program, the government of Tajikistan intends to return hundreds of women and children of ISIS fighters brought from Iraq and Syria to a normal life. The deadline for its implementation has been set until 2027. Most likely, the returnees will remain under surveillance until then.
“Eliminating the extremist ideology of some women and children” is one of the main points of the program. It also includes medical and psychological assistance and help to find a job.
“Unfortunately, for some of the women, due to the strong emotional ties they have with their deceased husbands or other women still left in Syria, rehabilitation has been delayed. Therefore, in the next period, we will organize the necessary consultations for the return of these women. relevant activities will be continued in this direction,” the program said.
The authorities have also provided that before handing over the children of militants to their relatives, the health and level of superstition of the families should be checked. Children who do not have relatives in Tajikistan are placed in boarding schools of the Ministry of Education.
According to the government’s program, heads of localities and local governments should try to prevent discrimination against returnee women and children in places of residence and educational institutions.
Based on it, security service personnel, psychologists, clergy and assistants from social services work with women and children returning from Syria and Iraq. And this work should be done daily and continuously.
According to the daily plan, this group of women and children study psychology, self-knowledge, music, literature and the state language, and also receive psychological help. Representatives of the prosecutor’s office, committees of religion, youth, work with women and family, Academy of Sciences, Islamic Institute and other institutions work with this group of children and women.
Until the end of the program, the returnees are kept in state institutions, mainly sanatoriums. That is, they are practically not free.
For the implementation of this five-year program, 6,600,000 somoni have been allocated. The government allocated 1,600,000 somoni from the budget and hopes to find another 5 million somoni from development partners or international institutions.
The authorities said that one of the main goals of the program is to “completely reject extreme religious ideas, move away from violent and extremist ideas, adapt to the values of Tajik society.”
After 2019, the authorities, with the help of international organizations, returned 334 women, teenagers and children from the war-torn regions of Syria and Iraq to Tajikistan. According to the government program, most of them did not directly participate in the wars, but went to Syria and Iraq together with their husbands and fathers who joined the terrorist group “Islamic State”. But still a number of them remain in Syrian camps and Iraqi prisons.
Source : Радио Озоди
