Tyranny of Evil: The Legacy of ISIS in Northeast Syria
For over five years, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) brought death and destruction to northeast Syria. In a region already marked by deep unrest, repression, and violence, ISIS introduced an almost unfathomable level of cruelty. Its reign of terror left a lasting impact on civilians, disrupting lives and communities, and inflicting trauma in ways still being reckoned with today.
While much has been written about ISIS’s brutality and the military campaigns that ultimately led to its territorial defeat, far less has been heard from the women, men, and children who suffered directly at ISIS’s hands. Despite numerous reports and media accounts on the shocking violence of ISIS’s regime, there has been limited sustained effort to collect and analyse the stories of affected communities across northeast Syria or meaningfully address the scars left by years of ISIS’s brutal occupation.
The Tyranny of Evil: The Legacy of ISIS in Northeast Syria report draws on insights from over 500 participants in community meetings and more than 400 individual testimonies—nearly 40% from women—across Kobane, Hasakeh, Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, and Deir Ezzor. It presents an in-depth account of how communities experienced ISIS’s occupation and continue to live with its legacy. The report details experiences of the occupation across six geographic areas in northeast Syria and further explores four key thematic areas: the economy, education, gender, and mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. It seeks to initiate crucial conversations on how communities in northeast Syria—still deeply affected by radical and prolonged violence—can begin to confront this legacy and navigate its lasting impact.
This report does not seek to emulate or substitute for accountability measures. It is not an evidence-gathering effort to support criminal prosecutions. Rather, it offers a starting point for thinking about how societies confronted by sustained ‘radical evil,’ can try to recover. The process documented is an effort to acknowledge the dignity and humanity of those who suffered so grievously. Of the hundreds of participants, many spoke to the moral significance of being asked to share their experiences in this way, and of having an organised space in which to do so.
Since the fall of ISIS, northeast Syria has existed in a kind of vacuum, with the international community—often navigating complex conflict dynamics and political sensitivities—uncertain about how to meaningfully engage or support efforts to confront the legacy of violence and process its long-term consequences.
As Syria enters a new chapter in its transition, Tyranny of Evil provides a foundation for renewed engagement with the lasting needs and grievances of communities in northeast Syria. The report amplifies civilian voices and calls for sustained attention and action, especially as ISIS remains a persistent threat.
About this report
Part One of this report details the history of ISIS, its ideological roots, and its route to power in the context of the Syrian conflict. Afterwards, the report is divided into two principal components. Part Two has a geographical focus, featuring detailed chapters on the experience of the conflict and occupation in six areas: Kobane, Hasakeh, Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. Part Three is thematic, with four chapters considering the impact of ISIS rule and the anti-ISIS conflict through the lens of the economy, education, gender, mental health and psychosocial harm.
Tyranny of Evil is available in PDF versions in both English and Arabic, as well as in an English-language microsite.
This report is a collaborative effort between the European Institute of Peace and Rights Defense Initiative (RDI).