Just over 12 years ago, Kamaldin Teshebaev and his wife had a large family of three sons, three daughters-in-law, and 16 grandchildren. They lived a stable, working-class life in the small town of Kyzyl-Kiya in southwestern Kyrgyzstan.
But the traditional Kyrgyz family’s world came crashing down when one of his sons -- a migrant worker in Russia left for Syria in 2014 along with his own family, to join Islamic State (IS) as the extremist group gained a foothold there. Soon, the other brothers followed suit.
Teshebaev, who is in his 70s, says his three sons and three of his grandchildren were killed in Syria.
After IS lost the territory it controlled in Iraq and Syria, tens of thousands of foreign fighters and their family members were detained or placed in camps. In Iraq, many foreign women who had traveled to live under IS, including wives of IS militants, were subsequently convicted under the country’s counterterrorism laws.
Teshebaev’s daughters-in-law also ended up in Iraqi prisons after the collapse of IS's self-proclaimed caliphate. Teshebaev says his wife traveled to Syria to try to “bring them back,” but she ended up in an Iraqi prison too. Details of her case could not be independently verified, but her family says she is also being held on charges linked to terrorism.
“I am alone now, but I am grateful to our president and government that brought back my grandchildren,” Teshebaev said. “They are grown up now, two of them recently got married.”
His 13 surviving grandchildren were among 79 children of Kyrgyz IS fighters whom Bishkek repatriated from Iraq in a humanitarian operation in 2021.
Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian states have organized similar missions, coordinating with local authorities and international organizations to repatriate some of their nationals, primarily women and children.
Fresh Hope For Repatriation
Teshebaev joined dozens of people who gathered outside Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov’s office on September 14 to appeal for the return of family members still imprisoned in Iraq.
According to Kyrgyz authorities, 41 Kyrgyz citizens are currently being held in Iraqi prisons. Most of them are the wives or relatives of IS fighters.
Relatives who have long campaigned for their families’ repatriation, have now been given fresh hope. In August, Iraq's Justice Ministry announced it was considering transferring nearly 6,000 foreign nationals detained over links to IS back to their home countries.
Teshebaev says his wife and daughters-in-law call him from Iraq, saying that they are desperate to return home and serve their sentences in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyz authorities had not responded to the families’ appeal by the time this report was published.
'I Am In Great Pain'
Among those appealing for help was Rahima Niyzamova, whose 41-year-old daughter, Zebo Alieva, has been held at Iraq’s Rusafa prison for more than eight years.
Alieva had been working in Turkey in 2015 when her husband -- an IS fighter -- convinced her to move to Iraq to join him, her mother says.
Niyzamova has been raising her daughter's four children who were brought back home by the Kyrgyz government in 2021.
"I am in great pain. Just imagine, a mother's child is sitting in prison. I’ve developed diabetes, and a heart condition,” she said.
Niyzamova said her daughter's youngest child was only eight months old when she was imprisoned. The child is now nine.
