Syria: “Unforgettable Memory” museum in Raqqa documents ISIS atrocities, calls for justice
Syria: “Unforgettable Memory” museum in Raqqa documents ISIS atrocities, calls for justice
The Department of Culture under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria has inaugurated a new museum in Raqqa titled “Unforgettable Memory,” the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to documenting the atrocities committed by ISIS during its occupation of the city between 2014 and 2017. The museum, located in the garden of the department’s building in Raqqa, showcases over 100 curated photographs and a series of powerful sculptures that capture the brutality of ISIS’s rule when the group declared Raqqa its so-called “caliphate capital.”
The exhibit includes harrowing imagery of forced child recruitment, public executions, and systematic abuses against women, including the imposition of strict dress codes under threat of violence and denial of access to education and employment. “This museum doesn’t just document pain,” said Sarfraz Sharif, Co-chair of the Department of Culture and Antiquities in North and East Syria. “It also highlights the resilience of Raqqa’s people, who succeeded in reclaiming their city in 2017.”
Among the most striking features is a haunting replica of Al-Naeem Roundabout, internationally known as the “Roundabout of Hell,” where ISIS displayed the severed heads of its victims. Additional sculptures depict the suffering of women—one chained, another representing a beheaded figure—and a piece featuring dozens of anonymous heads symbolizing the many disappeared whose fate remains unknown.
Original execution tools used by ISIS are also on display, along with official decrees issued by the group, such as bans on education, forced prayer attendance, and the conversion of schools into religious courts. The museum further presents a comparative narrative of life under ISIS with the city’s current reality, where women are actively participating in public life and cultural institutions are being restored.
Sharif called for transitional justice to hold all perpetrators accountable, stating, “It is essential to bring justice to the victims of ISIS and other war crimes committed against the Syrian people.” Since its opening, Unforgettable Memory has received local and international delegations from the United States, Singapore, and China—many expressing shock at the extent of the documentation, especially materials detailing the trafficking of Yazidi women, including pricing lists that treated them as property to be sold.
