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MOSUL, Iraq — "It is a big adventure" said one of the two women, who have just reopened their beauty salon in the liberated eastern half of Mosul, while hiding behind a glass door of a shop decorated with an image of a red-headed, smiling woman. She was referring to the talk of the town, ISIS sleeper cells which might still be hiding, waiting to conduct attacks on targets they deem legitimate.

The two women did not give their names, nor did they agree to appear before the camera, wanting only to share with the media as little information as possible, little enough to keep them away from the deadly attention of the extremist group.

One woman said that it was punishable under ISIS to have beauty salons in Mosul, but she and her colleague, in defiance, continued their businesses at home in secret. Not that long after, they were exposed, fearing for their lives.

Instead, the extremist group would bring women to the beauticians' homes.

"They said they were their wives, but they did not seem so," she said, indicating that they may have been sex slaves.

Following the loss of control of the eastern half of the city last month, ISIS has carried out a number of bomb attacks in areas populated with both civilians and the military, including an attack on a restaurant last week. These attacks have given people a sense of fear, not yet knowing whether ISIS is still within the sight of liberated areas just across the Tigris river that bisects the city.

Beauty salons have been part of the city, as has been the tradition of wearing the Islamic veil, both coexisting, prior to the arrival of ISIS militants more than two years ago. Some women in Mosul, like elsewhere in Iraq, wore headscarves, while others covered their bodies from head to toe with a niqab, leaving the area around their eyes clear.