The Sputnik correspondent met with the wives of Daesh militants. Among the 18 wives there are women from Turkey, France, England, Tunisia and Egypt. They surrendered to the Kurdish detachments of the Syrian Democratic Forces in Raqqa.
One of the wives is 30-year-old Meyr Hisme. Her husband, a Daesh militant, is a French citizen who was originally from the Maghreb. Hisme shared her story with Sputnik.
In an interview with the correspondent, Hisme said that she wanted to escape to Turkey via Raqqa but was forced to stay in the city by the militants.
“I lived in Damascus. My first husband was a fighter in the Free Syrian Army. He died during the air raid by Syrian aircraft. When the war in Syria had just begun, my parents left for Turkey. After my husband died, my parents sent me money to come to them. I went to Raqqa in order to get to Turkey from there,” Hisme said.
“I was forced to go back and there [Raqqa] I rented a house. Soon I met my neighbor; his name was Bilal Bin Ali Mugdat. He was originally from the Maghreb, but had French citizenship. He told me that he used to be a Daesh militant, code-named Abu Omer, but he left the organization. Soon Bilal suggested that I marry him, saying that in this case we will be able to go to the Maghreb. I agreed, because it was my only chance,” Hisme said.
She further said that when she and her husband planned to escape to the Maghreb, they got in touch with smugglers but they demanded $10, 000 in cash. Hisme and her husband didn’t have that much money so they could not escape Raqqa.
Recalling the horrors that Daesh inflicted on people, Hisme said that she had heard from her husband about the inhuman tortures and brutal murders practiced by the terrorists.
“My husband told me how they burned a Jordanian pilot. My husband suffers very much because he took part in that execution. He did not agree with the methods used by the members of Daesh, because he says only Allah can dispose of a man’s life,” Hisme said.
According to Hisme, when the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an operation to free Raqqa, they finally had hope that they could escape the city.
“As soon as the SDF approached the city, we moved to the village of Cizre to be closer to the SDF positions and having seized the moment to surrender to them,” Hisme said.
Upon surrender, they were sent to Kobani where they stayed for three days together with the surrendered Malaysian Daesh militants and their families.
“Soon we were divided into women with children and men. The militants were sent to a prison located in Kobani, and we were placed with children in a refugee camp in Ain Issa. I've been here for a month now,” Hisme said.
