A female
doctor says she left her comfortable middle class life in Malaysia to
join the Islamic State - where she married a jihadi she had never before
met and whose language she could not speak.
Calling
herself Shams, the 26-year-old has since kept an impassioned diary of
the time she claims she spent in ISIS-held cities Taqba and Raqqa -
updating a number of social media sites with florid descriptions of her
marriage to a Morocco-born terrorist who uses the nom de guerre Abu
Baraa.
As
well as posting detailed accounts of her day to day life as an a terror
bride, Shams also posts words of encouragement for other young female
fanatics thinking of joining ISIS - often updating her websites with
chilling images, including one of a doctor's stethoscope wrapped around a
rifle.
Shams has told her
followers that she first travelled to Syria in February, adding that her
emotions were at the time were a mixture of 'excitement' at the
prospect of joining the terrorists and 'sadness' at the thought of
leaving family members at home in Malaysia
She
added that she can speak English, Urdu and Hindi, which has helped her
fit in with the huge number of foreigners who have travelled to join
ISIS without being able to speak Arabic.
Her claims cannot be independently verified and she has not responded to contact on social media.
Her
marriage to Abu Baraa was arranged for her by another woman in April
and, despite the couple not sharing a common language, Shams has written
about their relationship in breathless phrases that wouldn't look out
of place in a Mills and Boon novel
Describing
their first meeting, she wrote: 'I was trembling. Nervous. Scared. My
emotions were mixed. When he noticed my arrival, he gave salaam [said
hello] and introduced himself, so did I. Then, it was a long awkward
silence.'
'After
few minutes, I flipped my niqab. He looked at me, our eyes catches each
others. He smiled. And asked a question I shall never forget . . . 'Can
we get married today?',' she added.
Shams
- who uses the Twitter handle @__birdofjannah - said the couple were
married on the same day they met, but it took her a further 24 hours to
'fall in love'.
Describing
their praying together, Shams said: 'He turned back and smiled at me.
And I can feel something. Yes, I guess I just fell in love with someone -
my husband!
She
went on to say that the couple have since downloaded dictionary apps on
their iPhones in order to communicate with one another.
However Shams is clearly aware of the potentially fleeting nature of a romance with a terrorist.
On October 21 she wrote: I know for a fact that one day my husband will be a shaheed [martyr]... and I have to prepare for it.'
Not
that such matters worry her. In one image she uploaded a photograph
understood to show her and a bearded, tie-wearing Abu Baraa on their
wedding day. Chillingly the image was captioned: 'In the land of
jihad...till martyrdom do us part'.
She later posted: 'I should learn to be positive and stay happy for the sake of my unborn baby.'
In
August, in a blog post claiming to tell 'the true story' of her life as
a jihadi bride, Shams told her readers that she is taking some time off
from her work as doctor as she had been diagnosed with hyperemesis
gravidarum.
The
illness is the same form of acute morning sickness that the Duchess of
Cambridge has suffered from during both her pregnancies.
Shams
claims that under the extreme interpretation of Islamic law practised in
the areas of Syria and Iraq controlled by Iraq, she required her
father's permission before being allowed to marry.
Far
from her family being horrified by her journeying to join the terror
group, Shams said her parents are fully supportive of her decision to
wage jihad. In fact she claims they have spent the past few months
putting their affairs in order before they make the journey to join her
in Syria.
When
asked her reasons for joining ISIS by one of her many followers on
social media, she said she first travelled to Syria in order to use her
medical expertise to treat wounded jihadis.
Shortly
after she uploaded a sickening photograph of a doctor's stethoscope
wrapped around a large assault rifle, describing the image as a 'selfie'
of her and her husband.
In
one of her most recent postings on Twitter, Shams wrote: 'A life
without jihad is like drinking sea water. It keeps you thirsty &
cause you dehydrated [sic]. That's the condition of our Ummah
[international Muslim community] today.'
The previous day she had posted: 'November is officially the month of martyrs, one after another, joining the smiling caravan.'
