Dutch IS women who went to Syria with their families also deserve punishment for taking their minor children with them. The Rotterdam court imposed a sixteen-month prison sentence on Naima E. (53) on Thursday because she took her teenage son to the battle zone. The son died there.
The court ruled today in the case of five Dutch IS women. Four were sentenced to two and a half to three years in prison, large parts of which were suspended. The court does not find it established that Naima E. from Zoetermeer was part of IS, but she did receive sixteen months in prison (9 of which were conditional) ‘because she put her child in a helpless state by traveling to a war zone’.
Requirements were higher
The sentences are clearly lower than the three and a half to four years in prison demanded by the Public Prosecution Service. “The role of these women has been more limited than that of Dutch IS women who have been tried before,” says the court. “In addition, the women spent more than four years with their children in a detention camp in Syria, which has been conditions have been appalling.” The women have also explicitly renounced their ideas of IS, the court says.
The five women left years ago, separately from each other, from 2013 to the conflict zone in Syria and joined the terrorist group IS there. Usually by marrying a (Dutch) IS fighter. After IS was defeated in 2019, the women were apprehended by Kurdish forces and imprisoned in a detention camp in northern Syria. Years later, they were picked up by the Netherlands, together with their eleven children, to appear in court here.
The stories of the women (Nawal H. from Schiedam, Amber K. from Dordrecht, Naima E. from Zoetermeer, Mereym S. from Utrecht and Hafida H. from Delft) are all different and remarkably similar. During the hearings in their cases two weeks ago, they talked about their difficult lives in the Netherlands before going to Syria. It was about marital violence, parents with drinking problems or suicidal thoughts. Naima E., at 54 years old by far the oldest female Dutch Syrian traveler, appears to be mentally retarded. There was seldom any question of a deep-rooted extremist religious awareness.
Caliphate
They went to the caliphate in search of a better life. They were presented with an Islamic paradise from Syria, but it turned out to be a war hell. Several women wanted to return immediately after arrival, but were unable to do so. Naima E., who went to Syria after her daughter Meryem (34), lost her teenage son. He joined other Dutch jihadists and was killed by war violence.
She took her son to IS and he died there. She has to learn to live with this terrible reality herself
The Public Prosecution Service charged Naima with the latter heavily. “If she had left her son at home, I would have demanded a much lesser sentence in her case. But she took her son to IS and he died there. She has to learn to live with this terrible reality on her own.”
The other women were charged with membership of a terrorist organization: they may not have fought themselves, but they did take care of their husbands, IS fighters. And by doing so, they contributed to the terror group. They also lived in houses that were arranged by IS and their men received a salary from that group.
Debt
It was striking during the trials that some women there seemed to have an increasing sense of guilt. Most of the women who had previously returned and been tried also expressed regret for their trip to Syria, but mainly because of the consequences for themselves, their children and close relatives. Now Nawal H. (37) expressed regret ‘to everyone who has suffered from IS’. “The presence of foreigners, especially the Europeans, gave IS legitimacy and credibility. I contributed to that and I regret it.” And Amber K. (28): ,,I made a very bizarre choice and I will never justify it. I have hurt many people with it and caused pain and sorrow. I would prefer not to say anything about it and sink through the ground.”
After the group of five, the Netherlands also brought back a group of twelve women and 28 children. Their lawsuits are still pending. Since 2012, about three hundred Dutch people have gone to the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq, most of them joined terrorist organizations such as IS. About a hundred Dutch people died, 90 adults and 80 children returned in recent years. The rest are still in Syria or have gone to Turkey.
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