Noor says that when men clad in black went to Barangay Pagayawan to recruit fighters to take over Marawi, her husband saw them as a way out of his financial problems.

"He joined ISIS because he had a lot of debts,” she says. “He thought that if he joined them and went into hiding with them, this would give him protection and then he wouldn't have to pay his debts. My children and I went with him."

Like many other local recruits into ISIS, her husband claimed he had no idea what the group actually stood for and what sort of violence they had already been responsible for. Noor says he was desperate to be debt-free, and he saw them as a quick fix to his problems.

As government forces took back Marawi, the extremists and their followers retreated to the mountains. Noor says, "It was very difficult. We were always on the run. My husband decided to surrender to the government, and we asked our relatives to help us get back to our home."

"We have learned that it's better when it's peaceful. We are now working to try and actually pay our debts. Joining the men in black didn't get us anywhere. We were hiding from our problems, and our debts were still going to be there when we got back."

Conflict is a key driver of violent extremism in South-East Asia. In a region where there are several ongoing conflicts, it is imperative that governments support targeted and inclusive policies that differentiate between insurgent and extremist violence, and address local grievances as well as socio-political and economic drivers.