Nadia B. joined the terrorist militia IS with her three-year-old child in 2014. Now the trial against the mother begins, who did not care about the emotional anguish of her daughter.
The girl is nine years old today. These nine years will probably ruin her entire life. What little Amina (name altered) has gone through as the daughter of a fanatical Islamist seems inconceivable. And yet, from this Thursday on, it will be a matter of public record. The mother, Nadia B., has to answer to the State Protection Senate of the Court of Appeal. In addition to being a member of a terrorist organisation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses her, among other things, of massively violating her duty of care.
The 41-year-old woman had travelled with her child from Berlin to the war region of Syria-Iraq in December 2014 to join the terrorist militia “Islamic State”. Even the child’s father Wael C., also a Salafist and classified as a dangerous person in Berlin, did not want this. But Nadia B., according to research by the daily Tagesspiegel, was unstoppable in her delusion of holy war. Of the many shocking stories that are known about Germans in the IS, this is one of the worst.
Amina was three years old when Nadia B. went to war with her. The mother had radicalised herself in the Berlin Salafist scene. Nadia B. had moved from Hesse to Berlin in 2008, became friends with a Salafist and converted to Islam. The fanaticisation apparently increased due to the influence of her friends. Until she left for the IS, Nadia B. married several extremists according to Islamic law. The fate of the little daughter, born in November 2011, was apparently secondary for the mother. And Amina had to join the IS, although the dangers were known.
The terrorist militia had overrun parts of Syria and Iraq in the summer of 2014. The Islamists perpetrated massacres and established a regime of terror. The women and children of the ethnic religious minority of the Yazidis who were captured in the campaign were enslaved, and opponents had their heads cut off. Nadia B. will have known all this when she arrived at the IS with her daughter. But the woman was enthusiastic.
Shortly after joining the terrorist militia, Nadia B. married again, this time to the fighter Ahmed C. When he had to go to the front and was injured, Nadia B. pretended to be a widow and joined forces with another IS man. But it turned out that Ahmed was still alive. The terrorist militia punished Nadia B. with lashes. However, the woman was allowed to stay with the IS and joined forces with Ahmed C. again.
Little Amina not only had to endure the stress of her mother consorting with changing fanatical men and getting into trouble with the terrorist militia. The anxiety got worse when Amina went to a school in Rakka, Syria, the unofficial capital of IS. Not only did the children have to deal with the Koran, the teachers also described the IS’s system of punishment. Right up to the cutting off of heads.
Nadia B. became a mother again in Rakka. She had two sons; their father was Ahmed C. When the air attacks on the city increased, the family left for the northern Syrian province of Idlib in 2017. In addition to IS, jihadist militias with links to Al-Qaeda are still active in the region today. Fighter jets of Syria’s dictator Bashar al Assad and the Russians, who are allied with him, repeatedly fly attacks. Ahmad C. died in a bombing raid in May 2017, in front of his stepdaughter Amina. The child also saw one of her little half-brothers injured.
Nadia B. married again, this time also according to Islamic law. The new husband, also an IS fighter, raped the wife. For daughter Amina, there was no end to the fear. In September 2018, Nadia B. left for Turkey with her children. In March 2019, the three little ones flew to Frankfurt on the Main with an acquaintance of Nadia B.. The Youth Welfare Office took the children into care. Nadia B. also returned to Germany shortly afterwards. And had her fourth child. The Frankfurt Youth Welfare Office took it away from her in August 2020. On the day Nadia B. was arrested.
In the indictment, the Attorney General’s Office also accuses the woman of having possessed an assault rifle while belonging to IS. And Nadia B. is said to have continued to receive money from the job centre and the family fund after leaving for the IS, altogether more than 8,000 euros. The worst damage, however, was done to the souls of the children, especially Amina. The daughter is considered highly traumatised. It is doubtful that the child will ever recover from the years of horror for which the mother is largely responsible.