American girls : one woman's journey into the Islamic state and her sister's fight to bring her home / Jessica Roy.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Scribner, 2024Edition: First Scribner hardcover editionDescription: x, 341 pages ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781982151317
- 1982151315
- 9781982151324
- 1982151323
- One woman's journey into the Islamic state and her sister's fight to bring her home
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | New | 363.325 R888 | Available | 33111011231921 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Named a Best Book of the Year by Elle
A CNN, NPR, and Today Most-Anticipated Book of 2024
A "gripping" (CNN), true account of religious extremism, radicalization, and the bonds of family: the story of an American woman who traveled to ISIS-controlled Syria with her two children and extremist husband and the sister back home who worked tirelessly to help her escape.
Raised in a restrictive Jehovah's Witness community in Arkansas, sisters Lori and Sam Sally spent their teens and twenties moving around the South and Midwest, working low-wage jobs and falling in and out of relationships. Caught in an eternal sibling rivalry--where younger, quieter Lori protected outgoing, reckless Sam--the two women eventually married a pair of brothers and settled down in Elkhart, Indiana, just around the corner from each other. It was there that their lives, once mirrors of each other's, dramatically diverged.
While Lori was ultimately able to leave her violent marriage, Sam was drawn deeper into hers--ensnared under the influence of a husband who slowly radicalized, via the internet, into a jihadist. With their daughter and Sam's child from a previous relationship, the couple moved to Raqqa, Syria, where Moussa fought for ISIS and Sam, who never even converted to Islam, attempted to survive and protect her children from airstrikes, extremist indoctrination, and the brutality of ISIS. In Raqqa, Sam's oldest son appeared in several Islamic State propaganda videos, and she participated in ISIS's practice of enslaving Yezidi women and children. Sam says her husband coerced her to move, but Lori--who quit her job and worked nonstop to get Sam out of Syria--isn't so sure.
American Girls combines an in-depth examination of Sam and Lori's lives with on-the-ground reporting from Iraq, providing a rare glimpse into the world of American women who join ISIS. Interweaving deeply reported narrative drama with expert analysis, the book explores how the subjugation and abuse experienced by women in the United States, women like Sam and Lori, are one in the same with the conditions that enable the rise of patriarchal, extremist ideologies like those espoused by ISIS.
Fascinating, "timely, and chilling" ( Booklist ), American Girls is an unforgettable journey--from small-town Arkansas to Raqqa, from domestic abuse to a militant terrorist organization--all told through the extraordinary story of two close, complicated sisters.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-341).
"The Sally sisters, raised in a rural Jehovah's Witness community in Arkansas, spent their teens and twenties moving between cities and towns in the South and Midwest, working difficult and poorly-paid jobs and falling in and out of relationships. Caught in an eternal sibling rivalry -- where Lori, younger by a year, protected bold, outgoing, reckless Sam -- the two women eventually married a pair of brothers and settled down in Elkhart, Indiana, just around the corner from each other. And it was there that their lives totally and violently diverged. Today, Sam is in federal custody, where she will remain for the next six years after pleading guilty to Financing Terrorism. In July of 2018, she and her children were plucked from a Kurdish refugee camp in Syria, where she landed after spending two years in Raqqa, shielding her children from airstrikes as her husband fought for ISIS. Sam's oldest son appeared in several Islamic State propaganda videos, and she participated in ISIS's practice of enslaving Yazidi women and children. Sam says her husband coerced her to move to Raqqa, but Lori-who quit her job and worked tirelessly to get Sam out of Syria-isn't so sure. American Girls combines an in-depth examination of Sam and Lori's lives with on-the-ground reporting from Syria and Iraq, providing readers with a rare glimpse into the world of American women who join ISIS. Interweaving deeply reported narrative drama with expert analysis, the book explores how the structures of subjugation and abuse experienced at home by women in the U.S. like Sam and Lori are the same structures that enable the rise of patriarchal societies like ISIS. Fascinating, resonant, and moving, American Girls is an unforgettable journey -- from small-town Arkansas to Raqqa, from domestic abuse to a militant terrorist organization -- all through the story of two close, complicated sisters"-- Provided by publisher.