Dutch mom rescues daughter from Islamic State
BRUSSELS — A Dutch mother has defied official warnings to travel to the Syrian city of Raqqa to rescue her daughter from the clutches of Islamic State terrorists.
The woman, from Maastricht, named only as Monique was told that it was too dangerous to attempt the journey to free her daughter Aicha, 19.
“Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. This is what I think is right,” she told family and friends.
After an appeal for help from her daughter, a Dutch convert to Islam, the mother was told by police not to try and rescue her because it was too dangerous.
She was also warned that the “provision of assistance” to jihadists, such as her daughter, could be a criminal offence.
Ignoring the warnings, Monique travelled from Turkey to Raqqa, the Syrian stronghold of Islamic State, wearing a burka after arranging a rescue rendezvous with her daughter via Facebook.
The pair then escaped across the Syrian border back to Turkey where Aicha was arrested because she does not have a passport.
After converting to Islam at age 18, Aicha married Omar Yilmaz, a notorious Dutch jihadist, who is a former
“SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO. THIS IS WHAT I THINK IS RIGHT.” MONIQUE, MOTHER WHO RESCUED TEEN
soldier, after seeing him interviewed on television.
“She wanted to go home, but could not leave Raqqa without help,” said the mother.
Dutch foreign ministry officials have intervened and intend to bring the mother and daughter back from Turkey.
“It is quite remarkable that the mother managed to find and take home her daughter,” Francoise Landerloo, the family’s lawyer, told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.