Event
Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad
Join us for the release of Two Sisters and a conversation with author Åsne Seierstad.
April 10, 2018
6:30 - 8:30 PM
Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
7th Floor Commons
20 Cooper Square, NY
An estimated 6,900 Western fighters have left home to join the jihadist fight in Syria. These “foreign fighters” represent a new demographic profile, quite different from that of other Western militants who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s or Bosnia in the 1990s: they are younger, and increasingly, female.
Of the nearly 90 sets of Norwegian parents whose children became such recruits, only a handful have come forward to tell their story. In Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad chronicles one family’s saga.
Seierstad (One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway) begins in late 2013 with the sudden flight of two teenage Somali-Norwegian sisters. She traces their father’s pursuit as the girls settle, marry, and bring children into war-torn Syria. Drawn extensively from the family’s personal emails and on-the-ground reporting, the result is a large-canvas work of literary journalism—one that provides a detailed portrait of Norwegian society and an eye-opening history of the Syrian Civil War.
Join New America NYC and NYU Journalism for the release of Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad and a conversation with Åsne Seierstad about the drivers of global jihadism, the realities of immigrant life in a liberal democracy, and the challenges to reporting on radicalization.
Please RSVP: https://www.newamerica.org/nyc/events/two-sisters/
PARTICIPANTS
Åsne Seierstad @AsneSeierstad
Author, Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad
Robert L. McKenzie @bobby_mckenzie
Director of the Muslim Diaspora Initiative and Senior Fellow, New America
Copies of Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad will be available for purchase. Follow the conversation online using #TwoSisters and by following @NewAmericaNYC.