Widow of Isis leader: ‘I lived with al-Baghdadi and I saw terrible things’

Umm Hudaifa, widow of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, reveals shocking details in a prison interview about life under his brutal rule, including witnessing the sexual enslavement of Yazidi children.

The woman, whose real name is not disclosed, spoke in a moving interview from a prison in Baghdad about her brief marriage to the former ISIS leader. 

Not her real name has been disclosed, the wife of al-Baghdadi known as Umm Hudaifi got married to him in 1999 before he became a dreaded leader, the man was just a conservative religious student. However, she alleges that he started developing some hostility towards the Western countries and became more aggressive after he was arrested and detained by the U. S forces at Camp Bucca in Iraq in the year 2004.

”He started having psychological issues”, Umm Hudaifa continued. ‘He was subjected to something that you cannot understand. ’ She tends to think that this man had been sexually abused when he was detained by the Americans, which led him to become a militant of al-Qaeda and then ISIS.

As al-Baghdadi emerged to control ISIS’s caliphate in Syria and Iraq, Umm Hudaifa narrates having seen the evils of the group, including the kidnapping of the Yezidi women and children to be sold as sex slaves. She said she attempted to flee several times but was subdued by the ISIS guards.

One of al-Baghdadi’s daughters was married to an ISIS member in charge of the family’s business at the age of only 12. Other girls including Yazidis were taken to their home in Raqqa, Syria for sexual slavery; a harrowing experience that Umm Hudaifa has narrated.

According to different civil laws, non-governmental organizations for human rights have sued Umm Hudaifa for being a part of ISIS and helping in committing genocide and crimes against the Yazidis. The widow refutes the allegations that she had no idea about the atrocities and that she was also a victim of the regime.

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Umm Hudaifi now sits in an Iraqi prison awaiting her trial following her arrest for the activities that ISIS conducted in the region. Having heard her narrate her ordeal, one gets an opportunity to get an inner view of the militant group leadership and their heinous deeds.