Bird of Jannah

Bird of Jannah (also known by the name Dr. Shams or the nom de guerre Umm al-Baraa) is a doctor who left Malaysia in February 2015 and traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

She was notable for her Tumblr blog, "Diary Of A Muhajirah", which described her decision to travel to Syria, and her life once she'd arrived there. Bird of Jannah’s social media posts attracted international media attention and were discussed in academic journals. Most of her writings were in English, but some posts included writings in Malay and Indonesian .

She has never been publicly named.

Diary of a Muhajirah The information Bird of Jannah posted online indicates she was from Malaysia and of Indian and Pakistani heritage, and was 26 years old when she arrived in Syria in February 2015. Without the knowledge of her family, she flew to Turkey and crossed the Syrian border. In an answer to a question on Ask.fm, she said her parents "were quite upset at first" about her decision "but then they are very supportive and happy." She acknowledged her husband's likely fate in the caption to one of her images: "Till Martyrdom Do Us Part." They did not have to pay for electricity or water, she said, and married couples and children received special monthly allowances.

Bird of Jannah warned her female readers to join ISIL “only and only for the sake of Allah alone. If you think by coming here you will be always happy, you’re wrong”. She indicated she would be willing to help people interested in traveling to Syria if they contacted her over WhatsApp. Her best friend, she said, had also come to ISIL and settled in Raqqa, ISIL’s Syrian capital.

Bird of Jannah stated she became pregnant soon after her marriage to Abu al Baraa. She took leave from her job early in her pregnancy due to a diagosis of hyperemesis gravidarum. She wrote that she texted her husband, "Promise me you will wait until our baby’s birth … Promise me that you will stay alive?" and he responded, "In sha Allah."

She subsequently revealed she had had a son. After she posted about her inability to go online as she could only do so using an Internet cafe, she deleted her Tumblr blog. It had existed from July 10 to September 26, 2015.

Fate under ISIL In 2018, Ummu Atiyah Ahmad Zakuan reported in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies that Abu Baraa had been killed and Bird of Jannah had last been known to be living in Raqqa with their son, serving the community without a salary.

She last had contact with her family in Malaysia in 2017, and that contact ceased when the area around her house was bombed.