×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Sunday
07
Dec 2025
weather symbol
Athens 13°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> World

ISIS brides reveal the reality of becoming a wife in the caliphate

Jihadi speed-dating, women fighting in female dormitories and religious fanatics "only interested in sex"

Newsroom July 17 05:19

ISIS brides have revealed the reality of being a wife in the caliphate, describing jihadi speed-dating, women fighting in dormitories and religious fanatics who are ‘only interested in sex’.

Ex-wives and widows of extremists told how they paid smugglers to help them flee from once the terror group started to lose territory in Iraq and Syria.

Dozens of runaway brides are reportedly now being held in a jail with their children at a refugee camp 30 miles north of the ISIS ‘capital’ Raqqa, in Syria. They have since described their bizarre lives as partners of ISIS fanatics.

According to CNN, one woman called Saida, who had fled to join ISIS from Montpellier in France, said she was desperate to return to return to Europe with her 14-month-old son.

She said she was lured to Syria with the promise of a new life with a devout husband.

i2

But instead, she and others like her found all-female dormitories where women would fight among themselves and extremists who were obsessed with sex.

The French national said women would take part in rounds of speed dating where they would be selected as wives.
She told CNN women would write a ‘sort of CV’ for the Tinder-like system.

‘She puts down her age, her name, what her personality is like, and what she looks for in a man. And men also post their CVs,’ she said.

‘So you meet, you talk for 15-20 minutes, and then it’s a yes or no. If they both agree then they get married. It’s very quick.’

Eventually, she paid £4,600 to smugglers to help her flee from the city, only for her husband Yassine to die during the escape bid.

Having fled, she now dreams of her old life in France and admitted she ‘loved jeans and make up’.

Others have told of a woman who married and was divorced at least six times before a jihadi court threatened to whip her.

Three Indonesian sisters Rahma, Fina, and Noor, who did not end up marrying jihadists, said they saw fighting in all-female accommodation.

They had paid large amounts to travel to the ISIS-held city in the hope of marrying men who were ‘pure Muslims’ and taking advantage of free healthcare and education.

But Rahma said of the male extremists they met: ‘They say they want to jihad for the sake of Allah, but what they want is only about women and sex. It’s disgusting.’

Another ISIS wife, named as May, said she was only passing through Raqqa when she met her husband – a Moroccan militant called Bilal who she described as a pacifist who did not want to take up arms.

The Syrian English teacher, from Homs, was already a widow after her first husband was shot by a sniper.

But she said her new husband has ended up in jail in the town of Kobani – and is fearful she will not see him again.

She said: ‘I want someone to kill me. Because I can’t kill myself, because this is suicide.’

She added that other women in Raqqa had been left shocked after being divorced by foreign ISIS fighters only ‘three to four days or one month’ after marrying.

Members of the al-Khansaa' Brigade, ISIS' all-female unit operating in Raqqa, Syria

Fresh details of life under ISIS rule come as it emerged that US-backed Syrian fighters have clashed with the militants in the heart of Raqqa.

Scores of civilians have since fled areas controlled by the group in the extremists’ self-styled capital.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), aided by the US-led coalition, launched their offensive to capture the city on June 6, and have since taken several areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting is concentrated in the south-western neighbourhood of Yarmouk and the Old City.

>Related articles

“They were raping me, they tortured me & hung me from the ceiling” – Academic describes 903 days of captivity in Iraq

Germany: Two Iraqi members of the “Islamic State” arrested

Netanyahu’s messages to Saraa: Developments on the ground in Syria and the protection of the Druze will decide our relationship

The SDF said intense fighting is under way in central Raqqa, adding that its fighters have taken positions near a centuries-old mosque.

The Kurdish-run Hawar news agency said some 180 civilians were able to flee areas controlled by IS while the Observatory put the number in the hundreds.

Source

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#brides#iraq#isis#Kobani#mosul#Raqqa#sex#syria#women
> More World

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Video: Farmer tearfully says goodbye to his 450 sheep — all of his local breed

December 6, 2025

Taylor Swift: The date of her wedding to Travis Kelce has been revealedThe couple may marry in Rhode Island

December 6, 2025

Tragedy for the 33-year-old climatologist who died on an Austrian mountain after her partner left to get help

December 6, 2025

Tragedy in Zakynthos: 18-month-old child killed after attack by family’s pit bull

December 6, 2025

The secret lives of Putin’s hidden children: Growing up in wealth and isolation

December 6, 2025

Mitsotakis from Markopoulo: The government is open to dialogue with farmers — they should come with representation and clear demands

December 6, 2025

Analysis by The New York Times: Trump turns his back on Europe, treats it as an enemy, and downgrades it to a hub of decline

December 6, 2025

The murders that changed the map of the Greek Mafia: The bloody path that started from the chief godfather Stefanakos and reached up to Zambounis who was gassed with 97 bullets

December 6, 2025
All News

> World

Tragedy for the 33-year-old climatologist who died on an Austrian mountain after her partner left to get help

Kerstin Gärtner, 33, died on January 19 from hypothermia after her boyfriend left her near the highest peak in Austria and was gone for 6.5 hours seeking help

December 6, 2025

The secret lives of Putin’s hidden children: Growing up in wealth and isolation

December 6, 2025

Analysis by The New York Times: Trump turns his back on Europe, treats it as an enemy, and downgrades it to a hub of decline

December 6, 2025

From MAGA to Make Europe Great Again, with support for patriotic parties and a “stop” on mass immigration – How to stop the onslaught of China

December 5, 2025

Billionaire Andrej Babis reappointed Prime Minister of the Czech Republic on Tuesday

December 5, 2025
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2025 Πρώτο Θέμα