Ais likes to dance. She knows the words to \u201cI\u2019m a Little Teapot.\u201d Her dimples are disarming.<\/p>\n
Her parents didn\u2019t want their daughter to dance. They didn\u2019t want her to sing. They wanted her to die with them for their cause.<\/p>\n
Last year, when she was 7, Ais squeezed onto a motorcycle with her mother and brother. They carried a packet that Ais refers to as coconut rice wrapped in banana leaves. Her father and other brother climbed onto a different bike with another parcel. They sped toward a police station in the Indonesian city of Surabaya, a place of mixed faith.<\/p>\n
The parcels were bombs, and they were set off at the gate to the police station. Catapulted off the motorcycle by the force of the explosion<\/a>, Ais rose from the pavement like a ghost, her pale head-to-toe garment fluttering in the chaos. Every other member of her family died. No bystanders were killed. The Islamic State, halfway across the world, claimed responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n Ais, who is being identified by her nickname (pronounced ah-iss) to protect her privacy, is now part of a deradicalization program for children run by the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs. In a leafy compound in the capital, Jakarta, she bops to Taylor Swift, reads the Quran and plays games of trust.<\/p>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a School for Suicide Bombers\u2019 Children, Dancing, Drawing and Deradicalization pic.twitter.com\/aiDdRyfeD7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ShamelNews (@NewsShamel) October 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n