RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, recently released a documentary film called Second Chance, which dealt with Kazakh citizens who had travelled to territories in Syria and Iraq that were under the control of the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist group, and who were later repatriated by authorities in Kazakhstan after IS had lost nearly all its territory.
To make this documentary, filmmaker and producer Shahida Tulaganova went to the camps in Syria and Iraq where the wives and children of IS fighters were held, and then went to Kazakhstan to meet with some of the women whom the Kazakh government had returned.
Kazakhstan is not the only government in Central Asia to bring citizens back home after they left to join IS and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.
There has been praise for those governments for making such a move, but the guests in this week’s program say the results are mixed and far from everyone who has been brought home is reformed or repentant.
On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion that looks at the effectiveness, and lack thereof, of bringing back those who willingly left to join extremist groups in the Middle East.
This week's guests are: from Britain, Shahida Tulaganova who made the documentary; from Harvard University where she is a visiting fellow, Vera Mironova, author of the book From Freedom Fighters To Jihadists: Human Resources Of Non-State Armed Groups; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.
Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.
