Video Two Syrian women film with hidden camera life in Raqqa, controlled by the Islamic State

"I can't imagine my city looking like this." In a video, broadcast by the Swedish newspaper Expressen on Monday March 14, two Syrian women film their daily life in Raqqa, the self-proclaimed stronghold of the caliphate of the Islamic State jihadists in Syria.

These two women captured these images using hidden cameras. "They know that they would be stoned if they were discovered. But they want the world to know what their life is like," explains the journalist from the Swedish daily in voiceover at the start of the video.

"We have lost our femininity"

For 13 minutes, this video shows their wanderings in the city, interspersed with testimonies from residents and propaganda images of the Islamic State group. Be careful, some scenes are violent and may shock.

In the city, women can only circulate if they are accompanied by a man or another woman. Girls are not allowed to go to school, the commentary states. It is also impossible to take a taxi alone. "They would stop the car and inflict 30 lashes on the driver, explains a taxi driver. The woman would also be punished."

In the images, we see an armed man calling out to a woman to ask her to readjust her niqab. "All women like to show their face. We no longer have this possibility. We have lost our femininity", says one of the two authors of the video. During a visit to a store, boxes of hair dye are filmed: the faces of the models on the packaging are covered with marker.

The account of violent executions in the middle of the street

One of the two women recounts having seen the execution of a soldier in the middle of the street, by four or five executioners. She explains the killing process: the victim is shot and then decapitated. His head is planted on a pike and placed on a roundabout. His body is left on the road. The cars are then forced to drive over the remains. They also tell of the execution of a man, thrown from the roof of a building because presented as being homosexual.

If they dream of leaving Raqqa, these two Syrians explain staying to help one of their friends who became pregnant out of wedlock. She faces stoning. The two women therefore intend to help her achieve a medical abortion.