Author: Chris Kodo

Even though there was a lot of news about the violence done by the Islamic State (IS) group, Dure Ahmed says she didn’t know about it when her British husband El Shafee Elsheikh was doing awful things.

He was involved with a group of IS terrorists who kidnapped, hurt, and killed Western captives.

The mother of two children says that she wasn’t influenced to have extreme beliefs, but that she was just a naive person who was deeply in love.

She said yes to answering questions from the BBC and Canadian broadcaster, CBC. She said, “I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. ”

Ahmed believes that there will be negative consequences for speaking out in public, but she wants to bring attention to the difficult situation of women and children who are trapped in Syrian camps and are likely family members of people suspected of being involved with IS. She was kept in that camp for over three years.

She says she has to come to terms with the fact that the time she spent with Elsheikh was a part of her life, whether she wants to accept it or not.

Ahmed says that Elsheikh did not tell her he had joined IS before she left to be with him. She says she didn’t know about the group’s terrorist beliefs when she went from Canada to Syria in 2014. She says she hardly recognized the controlling and violent person her ex-husband had turned into.
Some captives gave Elsheikh and his IS cell members a nickname because they spoke with British accents. The men were accountable for killing many hostages, most of whom were had their heads cut off. They recorded and shared the videos of the killings on social media.

During Elsheikh’s trial in 2022 in the US, lawyers said that his actions caused the deaths of four Americans. These Americans included journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig. They claimed that he was involved in the killings of four people: two British aid workers, David Haines and Alan Henning, and two Japanese journalists, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.

No one has ever found the bodies.

Elsheikh, who is from west London, is currently in a high-security prison in the US, where he has been sentenced to life imprisonment for eight counts. The UK took away his citizenship before he was found guilty.

However, there are still questions about what his wife, Ahmed, knew about the activities of IS while he is in jail.

Ahmed went to Syria to join Elsheikh two months after their IS group committed murders that made people angry worldwide. It happened right after IS did many bad things when they took control of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. They also started killing a lot of people from Iraq’s Yazidi religious group.

While Ahmed was away, she had two sons. She and her sons were part of a group of women and children who returned to Canada in April.
The person who is 33 years old was arrested when they arrived because authorities suspected they may be involved in terrorism. They were later released from custody, but they have to follow certain rules while they are out on bail. On Monday, the conditions were looked at in a court in Brampton, Ontario.

The lawyer for the government said that Ahmed was very involved in the ideas of IS and it is very probable that she knew about her husband’s involvement with the group before moving away from Canada in 2014.

The Crown and Ahmed’s legal team suggested they both agree to certain rules and conditions. These rules would involve her being monitored by GPS and having to stay at home between 10:00 pm and 06:00 am. The judge stated that he will announce his decision on 19 October.

We talked to Dure Ahmed two times. The most recent time was last week in Toronto, where she was more open and spoke more easily. However, we actually first met in the detention camp in Syria in November of last year. She agreed to talk to us about a British child who was missing. This is for a podcast series called Bloodlines that will be on BBC-CBC soon.

At first, we did not know who her husband was – but, after looking into it more, we found out about their relationship. Then we wanted to find out about Elsheikh’s radicalization, the people he harmed, and his fellow IS “Beatles”.

Ahmed and Elsheikh met in Toronto in 2007. (Rewritten) In 2007, Ahmed and Elsheikh became friends when they met in Toronto. She was seventeen years old, and he was nineteen years old. We wanted to know how they had initially become friends when they were teenagers living in Canada.

“She giggled about smoking marijuana. ” “He didn’t believe in God and it had nothing to do with the Islamic State. ”

The two friends stayed in contact after Elsheikh,whose parents are refugees from Sudan, came back to London. In 2010, they got married in a Muslim ceremony. However, they mostly had a long-distance relationship because Ahmed stayed in Toronto while she was studying for an English degree.

He didn’t like being around other people. He is very shy and keeps to himself a lot. So, she says he had all the qualities that could make someone become radicalized and go down a dangerous path.

In 2012, Elsheikh went to Syria to fight in the war happening there – then he decided to join IS. He kept telling his wife to come with him.

‘Please come and have a look. She said it as if going back was an easy thing to do.

Elsheikh refused to tell her about his activities in Syria,according to her. She also says she didn’t know where exactly he was living in the country.

Disbelieving it was better to not know than to know.

But, while she thought about going on the trip, she says that members of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service,alsoknown as CSIS, asked her questions about her husband.

“They [CSIS] clarified that in Syria, there are events occurring that are more complex than I previously believed. “”But, they didn’t let me watch a video. “

Ahmed says she had nothing to say to CSIS and she told Elsheikh that agents had reached out to her. CSIS told the BBC that they cannot provide details about any particular case.
Ahmed, who was 24 years old and had no job after finishing school, finally went on a trip. She says she did not see the terrible acts of the IS be headings that were being talked about a lot at that time. “It may be difficult to believe, but it’s genuinely true. “

We told her that she was smart and had taken a course on the Middle East. We thought she would know about the problematical Muslims around the world.

She said that she kept away from what was going on in Syria. She told us that her study was about the ancient Egyptian writings called hieroglyphics, not about what is happening right now.

According to Ahmed, Elsheikh planned everything – all she had to do was “get on a plane” to Turkey.

I just brought a small bag with me. Three sets of pants and two shirts.

In all the time we have been reporting on IS, we have noticed that the majority of women are unwilling to discuss why or how they became involved with the group. Everyone has their own story.

Some people experienced abuse at home, some were tricked or forced to travel and work-against their will. Some people joined eagerly because they wanted to have exciting experiences. Some people went with their husbands and children. Some of them were kids too.

And then, of course, there were many women who strongly believed in and followed the IS ideology.

Ahmed says he did not support IS. In the responses she gave us, she liked to portray herself as an innocent person who believes in love stories. When we talked to her in the Syrian detention camp, she strongly criticized IS – even though it was dangerous to do so in that location.
Elsheikh and Ahmed lived in Raqqa, the main city of the Islamic State group in Syria. There, they witnessed many killings happening at a popular roundabout in the town center. It became a regular occurrence to see severed heads being shown in public after these killings.

When we talked to Ahmed in the Syrian camp, he mentioned that his daily life consisted of doing regular activities with his female friends, like going out to eat or taking kids on rides at the amusement park.

When we spoke again in Toronto, she said that Elsheikh’s important position did not give them a luxurious lifestyle while they were under IS rule. She said that her house in Raqqa made her feel like she was in prison because they hardly ever went outside. No phones or internet – only she, her children, and Elsheikh’s other wife. Many people had more than on espouse. We inquired if they had Yazidi slaves at home. She replied that they did not.

She said her husband liked to keep things to himself a lot. “We couldn’t even open the curtains. “

She said that she thinks her children are fortunate to be alive, considering the harm Elsheikh caused her when she was pregnant.

Ahmed says she attempted to escape many times, but she had no choice but to come back because she didn’t have any family or support from the IS group. She finally left him when he ended their marriage, and went to find a safe place to live with her sons in a women’s guest house.

We mentioned that she had told us more information during our second interview. We asked if she was only saying these things now because it was easier for her since she was back in Canada and could go to jail.

“If I have to pay, I will have to pay no matter what. ”