A pregnant Alberta woman who moved to Syria with her ISIS-supporting husband and their two young boys says she wants to return to Canada.
The woman, whose first name is Amy, is one of four Canadian ISIS brides who spoke to CTV News from inside the Kurdish-run Al-Hawl refugee camp in eastern Syria.
Amy, who is 34, told CTV's London Bureau Chief Paul Workman the story of how she ended up in such a dangerous situation. It all started when she married a Muslim man and converted to Islam.
“He started learning about the religion more and he just felt like it wasn’t suitable for us to stay in Canada anymore,” she said.
“At first, it’s terrifying,” she added. “It’s absolutely terrifying when you’re just walking on the street and you hear a plane coming. You just freeze.”
Amy and her family were constantly on the run inside Syria as the terrorist group attempted to establish a caliphate.
After Amy’s husband was killed, she married a Bosnian man. He was killed about three months later. She is pregnant with his child.
“I don’t regret this,” she said.
“I want to be able to raise him or her in a safe environment,” she added.
Before ending up at Al-Hawl, talking about going home was not an option. “If you do hear about it ... it’s trouble,” she said.
“I think I should be allowed to go home,” Amy added. “I don’t believe I did anything wrong. I didn’t kill nobody. I didn’t do any harm to anybody.”
“I want to be with my family,” she went on. “I want my kids to go to school and get a proper education.”
The non-profit group Families Against Violent Extremism is lobbying for the return for Canadians who travelled to Syria. It says there are at least 27 currently detained and more than half are children under the age of five.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told CTV News earlier this month that repatriating foreign fighters and their families is not a priority.
