In February of this year (2015), three young schoolgirls from East London, aged between just 15 and 16 left their typical way of life and all comforts that go along with that in order to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State as brides to be. So far around 60 women from the UK have made the same journey.

The story of this disappearance instantly became big news and a blame game quickly followed suit in order to find out who was at fault. Once the families of the three girls, Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, and Kadiza Sultana found out that the police has already been interviewing their children in connection with another girl who joined IS, the case was picked up by the government for further investigation. It wasn’t long however until several media outlets turned on the families themselves.

In this film, VICE News gained close access to the father of Amira, in order to discover what it must be like for those left behind by the tragic choices of their family members.