A young single mother who fled Syria following the deaths of two ISIS terrorist husbands in Syria hopes to one day create a new life in Australia.
Islam Mitat risked not only her own life but also of her two young children as she carried them for nine hours across the desert in a desperate and dangerous escape to safety, where she was rescued by Kurdish fighters.
Now living back in her homeland of Morocco and free from ISIS, she hopes the Australian heritage of her youngest child Maria with second late husband Faisal Sahib will allow them to one day move to Australia for a fresh start.
Former ISIS bride Islam Mitat (pictured) still fears that the future for her and her two children is bleak, despite escaping Syria
After four years as a ISIS bride, she hopes they can lead a normal life but right now, taking one day at a time is all she can think about.
‘My dream is I want normal life with my kids. This is what I want now,’ she told 60 Minutes before breaking down in tears.
‘I just look at my kids, I feel so sorry for them.’
Islam was a physics student in Morocco with dreams of becoming a fashion designer when she met her first husband Ahmed Khalil, a British nationalist on a dating website.
She followed him to Turkey in 2014, believing the pair would live there before moving to England.
But it was there that she realised he was a radicalised Muslim who had used the trip as an excuse to get her across the border to Syria’s ISIS stronghold Raqqa.
Islam Mitat said her late husband Faisal Sahib (pictured right) often spoke about his old life in Australia and how much he missed it before he was killed
Islam had no idea of her new husband’s plans, and soon after they made the move, she discovered she was pregnant with her first child.
Just days after she discovered she was pregnant, Islam’s husband was brutally killed at war.
Women living under ISIS rule are forced to have the moral protection of a husband, so in order to protect herself, Islam married again.
She married Faisal Sahib, a champion kickboxer and unknown Australian jihadi who fled his family and normal life in western Sydney to join ISIS in Syria.
The couple had a child together before Faisal was killed in a coalition airstrike.
Islam said her late husband often spoke about his old life in Australia and how much he missed it.
‘He told me I wish I didn’t come here,’ she told 60 Minutes.
Former ISIS bride Islam Mitat pictured with youngest child Maria, revealed her hopes to one day create a new life in Australia
Followed his death, Islam managed her extraordinary escape from Raqqa through the help of neighbours who delivered Islam and her two children to a people smuggler.
She doesn’t plan to tell her children about their fathers.
‘I don’t want my kids to grow in this because they teach them how to kill,’ she said.