UK Schoolgirls Married to ISIL Militants

Two of the three East London schoolgirls who fled to join ISIL in Syria have married men approved for them by the terrorist group, their families said.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, fled in February from Britain after deceiving their parents and siblings, The Guardian reported.

Two of the teenagers have been allowed to tell their families that they have been married and are living in the war-torn country. One phoned and another used a social media platform to tell the loved ones the news that they have been dreading.

Their families are said be distraught at the news and have been clinging to the hope their daughters would want to come home.

The schoolgirls say that they have been separated and have been living apart for several weeks, in and around Raqqa, Syria.

The two schoolgirls have been living with the men whom they married in a ceremony approved by ISIL authorities.

The two schoolgirls are understood to have been given an effective “catalogue” of men deemed suitable by ISIL for marriage. They then made their picks from those presented to them. The teenagers who married are believed to have been wed to older men, in their 20s.

Tasnime Akunjee, a solicitor representing the families, said the families were grieving at the news of the marriages, as told to them by their daughters, “It has caused a lot of distress. It entrenches their lives in Syria, rather than in Britain. It erodes significantly hopes that they will come back.”

They had all been gifted students at the Bethnal Green academy in east London, before being lured by ISIL propaganda.

They fled on 17 February while they were on a half-term break, taking a flight from Gatwick to Turkey, which borders Syria. A few days later, they are believed to have crossed the border and entered land in Syria held by ISIL.

On Friday night, the Daily Telegraph showed video claiming to show the girls in ISIL controlled territory in Syria out shopping, with a gun-toting woman leading them.

The girls’ families do not believe it is them. All three of the women shown in the video are unidentifiable because they are wearing burqas.

Akunjee said, “At the time the video was shot, two of the girls are known to be married and separated from their friends from east London.

“The families think the video is unlikely to be them. All three are living apart and those who are married are under the aegis of their husbands and are unlikely to be under the aegis of some woman leader.”

The Metropolitan police did not confirm any knowledge of the girls’ whereabouts, but said that its investigation into the three girls – plus a fourth student from the same school who went missing previously – was ongoing.