Islam Mitat

Islam Mitat (born 1993) is a Moroccan woman who was tricked by her husband into traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014. After her escape from ISIL territory in 2017, she gave numerous media interviews. Her story was covered on 60 Minutes Australia in an episode titled "ISIS Bride, Aussie baby". There is also an Italian graphic novel about her.

Background, marriage and journey to the Islamic State Islam Mitat is from Oujda, Morocco and had dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her father is a retired member of the Moroccan king's guard. She met her husband, Ahmed Khalil, on the Muslim dating website Muslima.com. Mitat was 19 years old at the time. Khalil was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and had moved to Britain and become a British citizen by the time he and Mitat met online. Months later, Khalil traveled to Morocco and proposed marriage, showing Mitat's family his bank statements to prove the seriousness of his intentions. After marrying, the couple went to Dubai, then to meet Khalil's family in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. They stayed in Afghanistan for a month. Mitat went back to Morocco and Khalil went to Dubai.

Their driver took them to Gaziantep, which is near the Turkish/Syrian border, to a house full of men, women and children, all dressed in black. Mitat was confused and asked one of the women what was going on, and she said they were “going to Syria and going hijrah” meaning joining ISIL. Mitat told her husband she didn't want to go to Syria, and he said, "You are my wife and you have to obey me." She thought when they reached the Syrian border she could ask for help from the Turkish border guards, but when they approached the border the guards opened fire on them and they ran into Syria.

Mitat stated she had had no idea Khalil was an ISIL supporter prior to this; she described him as "a normal person" and said, "I thought he had a way of thinking like a British person. He promised me something but it was all a lie. I can't trust anyone again, especially men."

During this period Mitat also had encounters with British ISIL members Sally-Anne Jones, Khadijah Dare, Aine Davis, Nasser Muthana, and the Bethnal Green Trio, and with Australian member Zehra Duman. She said she considered the women she met to be more dangerous than the men, since they might denounce her for spying if they sensed she was not an ISIL supporter. She befriended an enslaved Yazidi woman named Waheida and wanted to buy her so she could set her free, but Waheida's enslaver wanted $5,000 for her and Mitat only had $2,000. Mitat stated she did not plan to tell her children who their fathers had been, to avoid traumatizing them further.

Mitat’s story is told in an Italian graphic novel, Io non sono Islam (“I am not Islam”) by Benedetta Argentieri.