Gulru Olimova grew up in Tajikistan, near the Afghan border. As a child she dreamt of becoming a doctor or maybe a nurse. But when she was 16, Gulru met a a man called Loik Rajabov, and it wasn’t long before they were married.
The couple went to live on the outskirts of the town, Kulyab, where they had three children. But like many young Tajiks, Rajabov struggled to earn a living for his family and had to make frequent trips to Moscow to work on construction sites.
On his return from one of these trips, his mother-in-law told me, the black flag ofIslamic State (Isis) was raised outside the family home.
In autumn 2014, Rajabov took his wife and children with him to Moscow. A few months later he phoned his wife’s mother, Mairambi Olimova, from an unfamiliar number to say the family had moved to Syria. Olimova reported the conversation to the Tajikistan authorities, but says that nothing has been done.
“Most of all, I want them to bring him [Rajabov] here, pour gasoline on his head, and set him on fire,” she said.