Bessima Assaad
Bessima Assaad is an Australian woman who travelled to Daesh controlled regions of Syria, with her husband and daughters.[1] Assaad, her children, and grandchildren have been held in Kurd controlled refugee camps, following the 2019 collapse of Daesh. Her husband Ahmad, also survived, and is a camp for men.
According to her daughter, Shayma, her older brothers, who had volunteered to fight for Daesh, convinced her parents into visiting the region, only to find the brothers had tricked them into going behind Daesh lines, where the entire family were trapped.[2] Shayma, and her younger sisters, were all minors.
One of Bessima's sons, the pair who tricked the rest of the family into being trapped inside Daesh, was related, by marriage, to Muhammad Zahab.[3]
Conditions in the refugee camps are primitive, crowded, with inadequate food, shelter, and fuel for heating. Some camp residents say that some of their fellow refugees remain devoutly attached to the austere principles of the Daesh regime, and they are at risk from those refugees if they too don't visibly uphold Daesh principles. Wearing western clothes, speaking to reporters, or even just smoking a cigarette, can trigger their animosity.
The Australian press described Assaad and her family as among the most vulnerable Australians in the refugee camps.
On October 29, 2022, Assaad and a three other Australian mothers, and their thirteen children, were repatriated.[1] The three other women were Shayma Assaad, Mariam Raad, Mariam Dabboussy.[4] The women had all agreed to be subject to "control orders" - security measures that could include periodic check-ins with security officials, or wearing an electronic security anklet, prior to their repatriation.
On January 5, 2023, one of the cohort of four women, Mariam Raad, was arrested, and charged with traveling to a controlled area, in violation of Australian law. Counter-terrorism officials have described Raad's late husband, Muhammad Zahab, as a charismatic recruiter for Daesh, who had played a role in recruiting dozens of other Australian muslims. They also assert that he had played a senior leadership role within Daesh. Raad has claimed she was merely a dutiful wife, who did what her husband told her to do, who had no real knowledge of his work for Daesh, and no influence over that work.
rough work
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Matthew Knott (2022-10-28). "Government begins repatriating relatives of Islamic State fighters from Syria". Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/government-begins-repatriating-relatives-of-islamic-state-fighters-from-syria-20221028-p5btq1.html. Retrieved 2022-10-29. "Mariam Raad, 31, has four children aged under 11: Dujana, Haritha, JuJu and Sumaya. She is the widow of Muhammad Zahab, a Sydney mathematics teacher who became known as the most senior IS leader from Australia."
- ↑ Suzanne Dredge, Alex McDonald (2021-10-19). "More than 40 Australian children still languishing in Syrian detention camp". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2022-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20221028050813/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-20/more-than-40-australian-children-languishing-in-syria-camp/100530332. Retrieved 2022-10-29. "Australian Mariam Raad is afraid her 11-year-old son Dujana will be removed from her care when he turns 12 at the end of the month."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dylan Welch; Suzanne Dredge; Naomi Selvaratnam (2019-09-30). "Married to Islamic State: The untold stories of the women Australia doesn’t want back.". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-30/women-of-isis-reveal-australian-network/11549490?nw=0. Retrieved 2020-07-22. "Mariam Dabboussy is risking her safety to reveal how her brother-in-law Muhammad Zahab delivered her and her baby into the grip of the Islamic State (IS) group."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Maryanne Taouk (2022-10-29). "'Willing to do whatever is asked': Women repatriated from Syria regret trouble caused". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2022-10-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20221029171117/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-29/australian-women-repatriated-from-syria-issue-statement/101593774. Retrieved 2022-10-29. "'We are willing to do whatever is asked of us by government authorities to ensure the safety of our families and the Australian community and we will fully cooperate with all Australian law enforcement agencies,' the women said."
- ↑ Livia Albeck-Ripka (2019-10-21). "Desperate Pleas to Free Women and Children From ISIS Camps in Syria". The New York Times: p. A8. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/world/australia/isis-camp-syria.html. Retrieved 2020-07-22. "While many women from around the world joined the terrorist group of their own accord, the families of all the Australian women in Al-Hol say they were coerced by husbands and other family members. Many say they are related by blood or marriage to Muhammad Zahab, a Sydney teacher turned Islamic State fighter, who they say delivered them to Syria."
