Wife of IS fighter tells of Istanbul holiday-turned-nightmare

KUALA LUMPUR: Aisyah (not her real name) never expected a vacation to Istanbul with her husband and daughter to turn into a nightmare which would mark her family for the rest of their lives.

The 31-year-old, who was seven months pregnant when they left for Turkey in March 2016, said she never suspected her husband’s intention to fight with the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria.

“When we arrived in Istanbul, we stayed for five days at a hotel. After that, we moved to a rented house.

“When I got to the house, I realised that my husband wanted to go to Syria to fight there with the IS,” she said during a media conference at Bukit Aman here yesterday.

Aisyah, who gave birth to a son after arriving in Istanbul, said she, her husband, their baby and their three-year-old daughter stayed there for almost a year.

While in Istanbul, she said, they relied on the help of charitable bodies like Baitulmal to buy food and milk for their children. She also dipped into her own savings.

“I rarely left the house. I only went to buy food at nearby stores,” she added.

In March the following year, she said, her husband – a former technician at an oil exploration company – took the family to Syria.

“We entered the Syrian border using two agents who took us through mountainous areas. Half-way, we were left in the middle of the forest.”

In Syria, they lived in a small town called Idlib, located in an area not under IS control.

“This was where I saw my husband carrying firearms,” she added. “My husband said he wanted to fight because he wanted to die a martyr. He said he had had the dream since leaving Malaysia.”

She said her husband also told her never to return to Malaysia, no matter what happened to him.

Aisyah, who got married in March 2012, choked briefly when speaking of her husband’s death on Feb 9 this year.

After he died, she said, she was afraid to stay in Syria. She said she was concerned about the safety of her children, which forced her to move from one location to another.

“I was in fear while I was in Idlib. I contacted my family to get me out of there,” she added.

Aisyah and her children returned to Malaysia on Oct 6 through the efforts of the police, the Malaysian embassy and the National Intelligence Organisation of Turkey.

Now, she only wants to return to her hometown in Terengganu and live a normal life with her children.

Aisyah and her two children are still under police protection and are undergoing rehabilitation and counselling before being allowed to go home.

A total of 102 Malaysians were reported to have been in Syria to fight with the IS, with 37 killed and eight returning to Malaysia in 2015.