AFP, AL-HOL, Syria: Outside her home in a town of northeast Syria, four-year-old Baydaa scribbles on a leaflet of religious rules left behind by the Islamic State group as they fled earlier this month.
Her face is adorned with make-up of the sort banned by the jihadist group, which was expelled from Al-Hol by a new US-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces that overran the area on November 12.
The town was once a key way station for IS between the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria, and its capture was a strategic victory for the new Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition.
But it is also a chance for residents to breathe easy again.
“My little daughter Baydaa has put kohl on her eyes and make-up on her face, which was forbidden when the ‘organisation’ was here,” said Baydaa’s father, Hamdan Ahmed, referring to IS.
“I’m so happy not to see them in our village anymore,” the 39-year-old told AFP.
When IS seized Al-Hol two years earlier, Ahmed refused to leave his home in the Al-Shallal suburb of the town.