Un lungo reportage del National Geographic raccoglie le storie di alcuni civili per raccontare la storia dell’Iraq. La vita prima dell’ISIS, l’esperienza quotidiana sotto il “califfato”, l’odissea della fuga e le giornate nei campi profughi o nelle città semidistrutte riconquistate dal governo.

The past 13 years have been an identity crisis for Iraqis. Just as they were reluctant to think of the sectarian violence of the 2000s as a civil war, not wanting to believe their society was capable of such cruelty toward itself, so many are unwilling to think of the fight against ISIS as a civil war. They don’t want to believe this monstrosity could have come from within. But ISIS is, whatever else it may be, an expression of that identity crisis. In this, its violent rise and fall is not just a religious war but a civil one.