In pictures: 10 years after IS beheadings, Coptic widows reflect on a decade of resilience and sisterhood
The 10 widows of the Egyptian Coptic Christians who were kidnapped and beheaded by the Islamic State (IS) group in Sirte, Libya, gather at the Church of the Martyrs of the Faith and Homeland, the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in al-Our, in the Minya Governorate in Egypt that was built and named in their husbands' honour.
The tragedy became a symbol of both the brutal persecution faced by the broader Coptic community and their resilience in the face of adversity. In its video, IS proclaimed that the beheading was a message to the 'people of the Cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church'.
Over the past decade, the widows formed a private sisterhood of support and strength.
They remain profoundly impacted by the massacre of their husbands, finding purpose in keeping their memories alive through imagery, personal shrines and telling the stories of their deaths.
But amid the heaviness, there are also giggles, shared birthdays, and inside jokes, as these 10 women from different walks of life find a healing joy in their unique bond born of shared grief.
'We had no idea who each of us were before this; it was from the day that they [their husbands] were kidnapped so that we started to get to know each other and come closer, as one, to pray for them,' Takeya Bebawey Raouf, 29, shares with Middle East Eye.
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