Tooba Gondal

Tooba Bashir Gondal (born January 6, 1994) is a French woman who joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), became a propagandist for them, and recruited other women and girls to come to Syria and join ISIL. After the fall of the ISIL caliphate in early 2019, Gondal was placed in a detention center which she later escaped from. She was arrested by Turkish authorities in November of that year and in December, she was deported to France to face charges for terrorism. She was sentenced to ten years in prison in December 2023. Gondal is the subject of a documentary, The MatchMaker, directed by Benedetta Argentieri.

Early life and embrace of Islam Gondal, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Paris, France on January 6, 1994. After attending Kelmscott School, she studied English at Goldsmiths, University of London. Although her family practiced a moderate form of Islam, she lived a secular life growing up, later saying, "I believed in Allah and that was it. Nothing resembling a Muslim. Now I realize, of course, I was lost." Gondal announced her defection on February 14, tweeting, "Hey UK security, how do you feel that your citizen left your filthy country whilst listening to Salil as-Sawarim [an ISIL nasheed] on the plane? Pathetic." After his death, she married another jihadi who was a British citizen. Gondal stated she didn't like her second husband and that they were married for only a month and a half and spent only four nights together. She said he told her he wanted to commit a suicide attack and when she asked him why he had married her if he wanted to die, he said he wanted to have a child. Gondal divorced this man and later gave birth to their son. Her second husband died in a suicide attack when their son was a month old.

After the fall of the caliphate In February 2019, during the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, Gondal escaped Baghuz, which was the last territory ISIL still held in Syria, with her two children. She was trying to reach the Turkish border but was captured by Kurdish forces and sent to a detention center in Ain Issa. While in custody, she was interviewed by The Sunday Times and claimed she had been "manipulated" and wanted to return to Britain. She said, "I want to prove that I am a changed person - a much better individual for society. I offer to help prevent vulnerable Muslims from being targeted and radicalised." She wrote that she had wanted to flee ISIL territory after 2015, but had been warned that her children would be killed if she was caught.

In November 2019, after Turkey attacked northern Syria, she was part of a mass escape from the Ain Issa detention center and walked, with her children and 20 other ISIL-affiliated women and their children, to Turkey. Under the "Cazeneuve protocol", French ISIL members who are found in Turkey are expelled from that country and repatriated to France to face trial. In December that year, she was repatriated to France with three other French wives of jihadists, including Amandine Le Coz and Sahra Ali Mehenni, and the women's seven children. Per the Cazeneuve protocol, on arrival the children were taken into the care of child protective services, and the women were taken into custody.

In 2022, a documentary about Gondal, The MatchMaker, directed by Benedetta Argentieri, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Argentieri met Gondal in March 2019 while she was filming in Ain Issa, and Gondal was a willing participant in the film. The court sentenced her to ten years in prison.