Brides of ISIL

Beginning in 2012, hundreds of girls and women traveled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), becoming brides of ISIL fighters. While some traveled willingly, others were brought to Iraq and Syria as minors by their parents or family.[1][2]

Some of those women subsequently acquired high public profiles, either through their efforts to recruit more volunteers, when they died or because they recanted and wished to return to their home countries. Commentators have noted that it will be hard to differentiate between the women who played an active role in atrocities and those who were stay-at-home housewives.[3]

Women who voluntarily traveled to Daesh territory and subsequently became prominent

Name	Birth year	Date of volunteering	Date of defection	Home country	Notes
Fauzia Khamal Bacha		2014		Singapore	Travelled from Melbourne, Australia to Syria, with her husband and four children, in 2014.[4][5][6][7] Bacha, her husband Yasin Rizvic, and their eldest son, were killed in Syria.[4][5][6][7] Their three surviving children, aged 6 to 12, and all Australian citizens, were repatriated on June 24, 2019.[4][5][6][7]
Emilie Konig	1984	2012	2017	France	Was the subject of a 2012 documentary.[8]
Aqsa Mahmood		2013		United Kingdom	Suspected of playing a role in recruiting the three students from Bethnal Green.[9][10]
Daniela Greene	1980	2014	2014	United States	Greene, a contract linguist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had been assigned to communicate with Denis Cuspert, a German ISIL recruiter, as part of a covert investigation of his activities.[11][12][13] During these conversations, Greene fell in love with Cuspert and travelled to occupied Syria to marry him.[12][14] Disenchanted within weeks, Greene deserted both husband and Daesh. Upon return to the United States, she was charged with lying to the FBI, later serving a two-year sentence.
Shima Essanoor	1992	2014	2018	United Kingdom	Introduced to her husband, Sadjo Ture, an associate of "Jihadi John", by her best friend, Reema Iqbal.[15]
Hoda Muthana	1994	2014	2019	United States	Started making inflammatory tweets after her first husband was killed in action.[16]
Salma Halane	1998	2014		United Kingdom	Twin sister of Zahra Halane, active in recruiting more volunteers after her arrival in Daesh territory.[17]
Zahra Halane	1998	2014		United Kingdom	Twin sister of Salma Halane, active in recruiting more volunteers after her arrival in Daesh territory.[17]
Tara Nettleton	1983	2013		Australia	Was able to travel to Daesh territory with her husband, Khaled Sharrouf, even though his passport had been cancelled due to an earlier conviction for terrorism.[17] The couple brought their children with them. Nettleton died in 2015 from appendicitis. Sharrouf and two of their five children died from the same drone attack in 2017.
Zaynab Sharrouf	2001	2013		Australia	Brought to Daesh territory by her parents Tara Nettleton and Khaled Sharrouf at the age of thirteen,[17] at which age she was married to Mohammed Elomar, a jihadi fighter and her father's best friend.[18] On June 24, 2019, it was reported she had been repatriated to Australia, also rescued with her two children, age 2 and 3.[19]
Zehra Duman	1993	2014	2019	Australia	Served as a recruiter following her arrival in Daesh territory.[17]
Shams		2015		Malaysia	Shams is a medical doctor.[17]
Kimberly Gwen Polman	1972/3	2015	2019	Canada/ United States	Describes first trying to defect after being in Daesh for a year, only to be captured, imprisoned, tortured, and raped.[20]
Reema Iqbal	1990	2013		United Kingdom	"The security services came to speak to me and I was honest, I told them my whole story so now it's up to them to judge."[2] Stripped of UK citizenship in early March, 2019.[21][22][23][24]
Zara Iqbal	1992	2013		United Kingdom	Stripped of UK citizenship in early March, 2019.[21][22][23][24]
Natalie Bracht		2013		United Kingdom	Reported to have been an associate of Zara Iqbal, Reema Iqbal, Ruzina Khanam, and Maylbongwe Sibanda.[23][25]
Ruzina Khanam		2013		United Kingdom	Reported to have been an associate of Zara Iqbal, Reema Iqbal, Natalie Bracht, and Maylbongwe Sibanda.[23][25]
Maylbongwe Sibanda		2013		United Kingdom	Reported to have been an associate of Zara Iqbal, Reema Iqbal, Natalie Bracht, and Ruzina Khanam.[23][25]
Leonora Messing				Germany	Reported to have wed a jihadi at just 15 years old.[25]
Hayat Boumeddiene	1988	2015		France	May have been killed in Syria, early in 2019.[26]
Shamima Begum	2001	2015	2019	United Kingdom	One of three young women from her high school to volunteer.[27][25]
Amira Abase	2001	2015		United Kingdom	In February 2019 she was described as "missing".[28]
Kadiza Sultana	2000	2015		United Kingdom	Died.[2]
Nassima Begum		2012		United Kingdom	Said she had no choice when her husband moved their family to Syria in 2012.[29]
Sharmeena Begum	1999	2014		United Kingdom	In February 2019 she was described as "missing".[28]
Sally Jones	1968	2013	2017	United Kingdom	"Reportedly placed on a special-forces 'kill list' after threatening Queen Elizabeth II".[30] Reported to be trying to return to Britain in April, 2017. Reported killed later in 2017.
Fatiha Mejjati	1961	2014		Morocco	Commanded "the Islamic State's Al-Khansaa Brigade, an all-female detachment that polices the group's strictures against wearing makeup or showing bare skin."
Linda Wenzel	2001	2016	2017	Germany
"ISIL wife Sanna"	1972	2014–2015	2019	Finland	A Finnish woman, called "ISIL wife Sanna" (Finnish: Isis-vaimo Sanna) by Finnish media, emigrated from Kotka, Finland, to an ISIL-controlled area in Syria with her Moroccan husband. She had converted to Islam in 2004–2005, and she is accompanied by her four underage children, of whom the eldest, a daughter born in 2005–2006, was married in Syria. During the fall of ISIL in 2019, Sanna was interviewed by CNN near the Iraqi border in eastern Syria. As of 6 March 2019, she was in a refugee camp and wanted to return to Finland. After the interview was published on 6 March 2019, Sanna's story was widely covered by Finnish media, starting a public discussion in Finland on possible return of Finnish citizens who emigrated to the ISIL war zone in Iraq and Syria. According to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, some 80 identified Finnish citizens (of whom, about 20 are women and around 30 are children) have travelled to the area; about 20 of them have died and around 20 have returned.[31][32][33]
Sabina Selimovic	1999	2014		Austria	Reported to have died in 2014 Two children sent to live with Selimovic's mother following her death
Samra Kesinovic	1997	2014	2014	Austria	Reported to have been beaten to death attempting to escape in 2014
Shayma Assaad			2019	Australia	Was pregnant when she made her way to the Al-Hawl refugee camp in 2019.[34]
Kirsty Rosse-Emile	1995	2014	2019	Australia	Was pregnant when she made her way to the Al-Hawl refugee camp in 2019.[34] Made provocative social media posts.[35]
Janai Safar	1996	2015	2017	Australia	Unlike many other Brides, Safar does not want to be repatriated.[36] Has denied that her husband was a senior Daesh official. Her family disputes she professed continued support for Daesh.[37]
Aylam		2015	2017	Australia	Cousin and travelling companion to Janai Safar.
Lisa Smith	1981	2011	2019	Ireland	Formerly a soldier in the Irish army. Irish security officials believe she was not an active member of Daesh and was no more than a sympathizer.[38]
Dullel Kassab		2014		Australia	Her father says she only travelled to Daesh-occupied Syria to find out what happened to her late husband.[39] Her family claims that once she arrived in Daesh territory, she was forced into marriage with a jihadi fighter. Once married to a jihadi fighter, she made social media posts that seemed to support the Daesh regime.[40] She has criticied Daesh's inability to provide health care, including pre-natal and obstetrics care.[41]
Lenora Lemke	2000	2016	2019	Germany	Bore two children in Syria and believed that she would be repatriated to Germany.[42]
Nûh Suwaidi	1995			Germany	Moved to ISIS territory with her husband, and bore three children there.[43] Claims her husband made all their decisions, and did not know where they were living.[43]
Nora Camali				[data unknown/missing]
Mariam Dabboussy	1992	2015	2019	Australia	Dabboussy says her husband tricked her into traveling to the Turkish-Syrian border with a claim they were going to help one of his relatives escape Syria, only to force her to cross the border, at gunpoint.[44][37]
Nesrine Zahab				Australia	Claims she was tricked into Daesh territory when she thought she was merely delivering emergency food supplies to the border.[45]
Zara Ahmed				Australia	Ahmed said refugee women who remain radicalized are murdering other camp occupants they see as apostates.[46]
Zahra Ahmad				Australia	Traveled to Syria with her extended family, and became Muhammad Zahab's second wife.[47]
Amandine				France	Gave birth to a son in ISIL territory.[48]
Hafsa Sliti	1988	2015	2017	Belgium	Hafsa's father, Amor Sliti, took her mother, Hafsa, and her four younger siblings to Afghanistan, in 2000.[49] Her mother, Christine Volcke, fled, leaving Hafsa and her siblings with her father. Her father agreed to marry her to a member of the Taliban, when she was just 13 years old, and she bore him a child. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, in the fall of 2001, her husband ended up in the Guantanamo detention camp, and Hafsa, her father and her siblings ended up in an Iranian refugee camp. They were deported back to Belgium in February 2002. Hafsa and her siblings were put in the care of Volcke, her mother, while her father was tried and convicted of terrorism charges. Her father was stripped of Belgian citizenship, and deported to Tunisia in 2010.[49] He traveled to the newly established Islamic State, Daesh, where he worked in the tax department. Hafsa joined him, in 2015. She married a jihadi fighter, and bore another child. She says that by 2017 she and her father had grown disillusioned with the brutality and corruption of the Daesh regime. She says they made three escape attempts, and that her father was shot on the third attempt. Hafsa says she is not a threat, and would prefer to be repatriated to Belgium, with her children, even if it meant serving a prison sentence.[49]
Samantha Marie Elhassani	1985	2014	2018	United States	One of 27 Americans repatriated to face charges in the USA.[50]

Shannon Maureen Conley and Jaelyn Delshaun Young were American women who were apprehended when they tried to travel to ISIL-occupied territory.[51] Minnesotan Tnuza Jamal Hassan was prevented from traveling to Afghanistan.[52]