Belgian women among ISIS widows in North Syria camp
“We regret what we’ve done, and we want to fix our mistake,” Tatiana and Bushra told Belgian TV station “VRT” from inside a makeshift camp in northern Syria, where many ISIS widows and wives await to know their fate.
Tatiana and Bushra, both 25, are awaiting the decision of the Belgian Court of Appeal of Antwerp on their case for joining ISIS ranks.
The public prosecutor has asked for a five-year sentence for the two defendents. “If we are sentenced to 20 years in prison, we will respect the court’s decision,” Tatiana said.
Bushra, for her part, said: “As long as our children are safe, go to school and live normal lives in Belgium, then nothing matters.”
Bushra and Tatiana spoke to Tony Franks, a reporter for the Dutch-language VRT, from a closed camp in northern Syria.
Bushra said they succeeded in escaping from Raqqa and surrendered to the Kurdish forces. Now, they are waiting to know if it is possible for them to return to Belgium, where they will not be sent to prison because they have surrendered instead of being arrested.
None of the Belgian officers from the Embassy has visited them since their arrival at the camp.
Tatiana traveled with Bushra in 2013 to meet her husband Noureddin, Bushra’s brother, while Bushra sought to join her husband Saeed. Both men were members of Sharia group in Belgium before traveling to Syria to fight there.
Shortly after Tatiana and Bushra arrived in Syria, their husbands were killed in clashes and did not attend the birth of their children.
The two women returned to Belgium in 2014 and each was treated as the widow of an ISIS militant.
In 2015, they agreed to return to Syria with their children.
“The Belgian state failed to fight extremism, and it did not ban us from traveling to Syria although you imposed control on us 24 hours a day and for seven days a week. We traveled to Syria because it is the duty of every Muslim, and you pushed us to do it,” Bushra wrote on her Facebook page.
After reaching Syria, the two women remarried other ISIS elements, who disappeared shortly thereafter, leaving them in the closed camp which the Belgian TV reporter visited.
Source: Aawsat
