A British family has spoken out and pleaded for a chance to return to their homeland and ‘normal life’ after ‘accidentally’ joining ISIS forces while they were on their vacation in Syria.
51-year-old Safiya Zaynab and her daughters, Alireza Sabar, 17, and Shabina Aslam, 29, have spoken to media and expressed they miss the life and the freedom they had when they lived in Didsbury, Manchester.
“We all miss our life before, we miss freedom, independence, no fear,” Shabina told Channel 4 after getting picked up by the Syrian Democratic Forces near Hajin, Syria.
“We want to go back to England, back to my family, I want my children to have a normal life.”
Alireza and Shabina have been living in the caliphate together with their mother for several years. During that time, they have both gave birth to children of their own.
Speaking of their life under the Islamic rule, Shabina added:
“You can’t trust anyone, we asked the Syrians and Iraqis to leave but no one wanted to help us. The culture was completely different.
“The Arabs never help the women, they just pushed them towards marriage.”
The mother-of-one went on to claim how her family never intended to join ISIS and how they were trapped by their forces after “accidentally” traveling to Syria instead of Turkey for vacation.
“I don’t regret anything because we came on a holiday, which then turned into this,” Ms. Aslam said. “I don’t know how it’s never been explained to me.”
As for the 51-year-old mother’s ex-husband, Sabar Aslam, who remained in Didsbury and divorced Safiya in 2014 after thinking that she had left him to live in Saudi Arabia, he claimed that he couldn’t recognize his family in the video.
“They left me four years ago and that’s the end of the story. She wasn’t happy with me,” he added.
“They are not brave people they are very soft people. I don’t think they would be joining something like ISIS.
“The police have interviewed me many times. They asked me questions about them but they never said they were in Syria.
“I thought she had gone to Saudi Arabia as all the time Safiya was talking about it. I thought she went there.”
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