Thread by @RojavaIC

[WORLD EXCLUSIVE]

British ISIS member Tooba Gondal – AKA “the ISIS matchmaker” – is alive, in a North East Syria refugee camp.

Speaking to @RojavaIC in her first ever interview, she said: “The British public are scared, they don't want to deal with us. But they must.” [1/22]

The French-born, British-Pakistani woman – pictured here shortly after her arrival in Syria – is now aged 25.

She’s living in Ayn Issa camp with her two children following a failed escape bid from ISIS-held Baghouz village to the Turkish border just two months ago. [2/22]

A 2016 investigation by the @DailyMailUK revealed that Ms Gondal was actively grooming and recruiting teenage girls from the UK to join ISIS, using the nom-de-guerre Umm Muthanna-al-Britaniyah. [3/22]

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3…

Ms Gondal identified herself to @RojavaIC by name, describing herself as a 25-year-old British-Pakistani woman born in France, but with permanent British residency.

The audio recording of our interview corresponds to audio tracks posted online by Ms Gondal back in 2013. [4/22]

During our brief conversation, Ms Gondal stated she wishes to be repatriated back to the UK;

“The women and the children [of ISIS] became the victims… If I did not harm anyone, if I committed no harm in Syria for 4 years, what kind of threat can I be to Britain?” [5/22]

However, Ms Gondal was dubbed the “ISIS matchmaker” for her role recruiting women to marry ISIS fighters – it's been suggested Shamima Begum was among them.

She was also married to a key ISIS recruiter identified in a @thetimes investigation. [6/22]

thetimes.co.uk/article/isis-r…

Ms Gondal also played an important propaganda role for ISIS.

She posed with an AK-47 in propaganda photos, bragged about attending military training, and praised the 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed by ISIS-linked terrorists. [7/22]

vice.com/en_uk/article/…

We can now fill in some of the missing time after her propaganda fell quiet in 2016.

After the death of her first husband, the Lebanese recruiter, Ms Gondal says she married at least one more man, a Pakistani fighter who was killed in Khsham village. [8/22]

Following his death, she spent “a year and a half… always having to move from one village to another” in the Deir Ez-Zor region as ISIS was eradicated:

“We didn't know who’s on the left attacking us, who's on the right... who are we even with... It was a complete mess.” [9/22]

At some point, she was injured by what she says was shrapnel from regime fire, and still has a scar between her eyebrows:

“[ISIS] stitched over it, I don’t know if they were doctors or amateurs… now I have a big nerve problem in my head… vomiting, dizziness…” [10/22]

2 months ago, she & a group of women paid a smuggler to leave. They travelled “through the desert, moving from car to car over five days,” aiming for Turkey.

But she was stopped at "the Kurdish checkpoint... 15 minutes close to the border of Turkey," searched & detained. [11/22]

Ms Gondal complained that the SDF confiscated their possessions: “they took our money, they took our gold, all our electronics, we have to start life from zero.”

She says she still has her passport, however, keeping it sewn in her 2-year-old son’s diapers. [12/22]

She says she’s grateful for the provision of monthly food rations and solar charging panels, but complains about the living conditions in the camp: uncleanliness, long queues at the camp shop, and “no schooling” for her children. [13/22]

Camp officials say these complaints should be treated with caution. For example, education is in fact provided by an NGO, but the ISIS women refuse to send their children.

They also refused a donation of textbooks since they included pictures, in violation of Sharia law. [14/22]

But the “ISIS match-maker” and officials of the Autonomous Administration in North-East Syria are agreed on one thing.

Camps like Ayn Issa or al-Hol, now home to over 70,000 women and children who have exited ISIS areas, cannot be a permanent solution to this crisis. [15/22]

You can read @RojavaIC's report on the humanitarian crisis among those exiting ISIS-controlled areas here:

“The Americans’ willingness to provide an expensive show of force lies in stark contrast to the near-total lack of humanitarian support.” [16/22]

novaramedia.com/2019/03/15/as-…

Ms Gondal says she fears children “will grow up to not have any manners and not have any education… the women will maybe lose their sanity… more sicknesses, more diseases, cases of death.” [17/22]

If ISIS members like Ms Gombal are simply left to rot in camps like Ayn Issa or Hol, the result will be worse than mere “bad manners”.

In Ayn Issa, @RojavaIC saw children flashing the raised index finger of ISIS, & shouting at a woman visiting the camp to cover her head. [18/22]

As such, Loqman Ehmê of the Autonomous Administration in NE Syria told @RojavaIC they need international support to build up an “international court in North East Syria... Guilty people within ISIS can be identified by local witnesses and get their just punishment." [19/22]

Regarding Ms Gombal’s young children and others like them, Mr Ehmê said:

“As for ISIS families who have not been involved in combat, their countries can take them back and educate them to be free from [ISIS] ideology.” [20/22]

As for Ms Gombal and her kind, “they must be judged, and international trials must be conducted for those who are guilty. In this region, everyone knows who they are and can testify against them, so they can be prosecuted for the crimes they have committed.” [21/22]

For the full read-out of Ms Gombal’s comments, and usage rights for her photo taken in Ayn Issa camp, North East Syria on 30.03.2019:

Please contact Rojava Information Center here or on [e-mail].

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