Russian official says received 1000 requests from IS widows for return

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A Russian official has said there are 1000 Russian women who had been married to Islamic State extremists and are eager to return home.

Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, said in a conference it had received more than 1000 requests from Russian nationals who left with their husbands to Syria and Iraq and are eager to return home.

She said the husbands of those women were killed in battles, adding that the women “sustained an unimaginable violence”.

Moskalkova, however, noted that returning those women remains difficult given that they had taken part in terrorist activity and could pose a threat to fellow citizens if they are repatriated.

Islamic State militants ran over large areas of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate”. The extremist group had been notorious for maintaining women as sex slaves and executing people who did not abide by their religious code.

Iraq declared victory over the group at the end of 2017, and authorities there say they are holding hundreds of women and children related to the fighters.