Dagestani woman surrenders to SDF, says ISIS is ‘all a lie’

A woman from the Russian Republic of Dagestan who joined ISIS with her husband in 2014 now says “This isn’t an Islamic state. There is nothing Islamic in it… This is all a lie.”

Emnei Imrakhanova and her first husband traveled to Syria through Turkey. Her first and second husbands were killed in fighting. Her third is currently being investigated. 

Imrakhanova turned herself over to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the town of al-Susa, near Hajin, where the Kurdish-led forces are fighting ISIS in their last stronghold in the Euphrates River valley in Deir ez-Zor province. 

The self-administration authorities in northern Syria are currently holding nearly 400 wives of ISIS fighters. They have asked their home countries to take the women back, but most nations don’t want to take back these women or the foreign fighters. 

In September, the Kurdish authorities handed a female Sudanese ISIS member and her one-month-old child over to a Sudanese diplomat. 

“I would like to return to the camps where my sisters speak in Russian. Then later let them decide for themselves. For me, it makes no difference whether I return to Russia or not,” said Imrakhanova.