VIA Gra in tel afar: how dozens of Russian women left their husbands in the IG, and was in the Baghdad prison
In the Central women’s prison in Baghdad are now waiting for the court about 50 women from Russia, who visited IG. Almost all of them children, almost all were in the IG after the men, many have spent six months in captivity by Iraqi military forces. In Iraq they face life imprisonment and even the death penalty. In Russia they are fighting for relatives, claiming that their loved ones were innocent. Russian service Bi-bi-si tells the stories of girls.
In early December of 2017, the native of Simferopol Irada Tagirjanov got a message in WhatsApp from unknown number: “hi. I have some news about your sister Rosanne”. The girl was sent in response to seven messages in a row:
Good evening.
What’s the news.
Who you are.
She’s alive.
???
Where she is.
Answer me.
Any news about his little sister at Irada to this point has not been nearly four months since the August was released on bond from the besieged city of tel afar in Iraq. Town 50 kilometers West of Mosul at the time was under the control of Islamic state *. After the liberation of the Iraqi army Mosul — the battle for the city lasted for nine months — a stronghold of ISIS* moved it to tel-afar. Rushen told my sister that her husband died and that she is looking to get out from the territory of the IG. A few days later began the bombardment of tel afar, and then the assault, which lasted a week. After that connection with Rosenau gone.
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The interviewee said: “I can not only Russian language is Arabic”. She suggested that he used an electronic translator. “I love to help Rosanne to know her news and health — continued unknown. Talk to her not so well by his son Adam.” Irada says that he decoded the message like this: now to talk to my sister is impossible. The source sent a photo of a small son Rushen, and she answered — several Emoji with folded hands in gratitude.
Three days later, at 2: 43 night Rushen was released on bond. The voice message is muffled whisper:
Can you hear me? I’m fine, we are alive and well.“The girl dedicated the song”
Relatives still do not really understand how it Violated Tagirjanov fell in 2014, from Simferopol on the territory of the IG. Ethnic sisters belong to the Crimean Tatars, but Islam in the family was probably part of a cultural tradition than religious: the hijab by their mother alone who raised three children, did not wear ever.
Rushen herself studied at the hairstylist, went to photography courses and no interest, according to her family, to the Muslim and the more extremist ideas never acted on, and grew balomenou beauty: loved expensive perfume and sunglasses on half face, was engaged in Greco-Roman wrestling and never missed an opportunity to demonstrate a shape — in the photos she wears tight dresses and leopard leggings. Overall, she explains about her sister, she was “the girl who dedicated a song”.
In the spring of 2014 Rushen eighteen fell in love by correspondence in Chechen Mansur. Religious wedding ceremony — nikah, — as suggested by Irada, conducted remotely, and then a younger sister “secretly Packed her bags and ran away from home”. “We are not that surprised, we were simply in shock, — tells about the reaction of the families of Irada. I say, “Where are you?” “I’m in Turkey, came to school” — “How do you even go there without our permission?”.
For some time the couple actually lived in Turkey, but when the relationship with his sister became irregular, she became suspicious and asked directly. Rushen admitted that she, along with her husband in Mosul — a city in Iraq at the time was under the rule of the “Islamic state” — and that they have no money, no regular Internet access.
Was the husband of the sister of Mansur fighter, she doesn’t know but suggests that there is:
If he fought, he would have some money.
But she claims to know “exactly what my sister was sitting at home”. Three years in the IG Violated held first pregnant — she gave birth to a son and then breastfeeding. To go out unaccompanied by her husband was forbidden to communicate with other men too. In the Internet cafes Violated went, too, only with her husband, so that the connection with family was irregular, every two to three months.
Rushen says she, “experimenting hair color: light brown, orange is she” and was chosen for a visit to her friends Karin and Bakirovoj Macke Umaibou. Both girls now also are awaiting trial in a Baghdad prison.
They, like Rushen, was in IG with their husbands — for an explanation of Irada, naivety, or as a result of fraud, as was “young and stupid” (mother McKee Umaibou in conversation with the correspondent Bi-bi-si recalled that in the second year of nursing her daughter fainted at the sight of blood, and wondered how it could be IG).
Both she and her friends were children: Karina, four, McKee — one newborn daughter. Meeting girlfriends closed the house, drew the arrow and took selfies: now about the pictures she jokes that this is “the”VIA Gra” live in tel-afar.
In the summer of 2017 Mansour managed to organize a home Wi-Fi Destroyed “already was so desperate that he begged to sister chat”. On 9 August, Mansour died: in the house there was no light, he went in search of fuel, and the car was hit by a bomb. “He was driving behind a diesel — or how is called, when the lamp myself? — says Irada. — When we in the Crimea in 2014, the light turned off, these were everywhere”.
14 August 2017 Rushen reported that there was a conductor, who offered five and a half thousand dollars to get her with child from the IG — on such practices “guides” have told the people who managed to escape from Syria and Iraq. She collected the money within two days and flew to Turkey. “A week had talks with them. Week. Then they still a thousand dollars asked. We agreed to it. Then raised the rate to ten thousand.” After that, and Violated, and potential conductors were gone. Irada money back home.
Information about what with his sister and if she’s still alive, Irada was not four months. Said that women could sell on the “white market” — that is, into sexual slavery. Said that after the capture of tel afar, the Iraqi troops no one left alive. All this time Rushen Tagirjanov with the child was in the thrall of the Association “Hashd al-SHAABI” — units of the national mobilization fighting on the side of the government of Iraq against the “Islamic state”. At some point she managed to persuade one of the guards so much that he agreed to write her sister — Irade.
“I live like in a five star hotel”
In correspondence, a native of Simferopol and fighters of the people’s police of the Iraqi city of Karbala a lot of Emoji, and quickly found that they best remove the language barrier. She wrote messages in Arabic using an online translator or asked for help to my brother who knows the language. The guard answered just as well — a mixture of broken Russian and native language. In addition, he began to give Rosene the phone for 10-15 minutes every two or three days, when he had the change — usually the sessions happen late at night. She wrote translit short messages or naschityvala in a whisper, “in tihushku,” the voice of the message.
Rushen said that her sit in captivity and other native Russia, told his sister the name of the group, their restraint, and the approximate location. Accurate data the girl was not: the captives were kept in a closed room — no women, no children for about six months did not come to light. According to Rushen, total captured was two hundred people — about seventy women of different nationalities and their children. In the same room at the same time lived a hundred people. In one of the voice messages Violated sister complains on the food:
This pic I have in mind already is. Rice, rice, rice, rice.
I had to sleep on the floor. There was one toilet for two hundred people. There was neither medicine nor medical care. Friend Rushen Karina Beshirova in these conditions gave birth to the fifth child.
In January 2018, another prisoner, Aisha, the daughter of Madina Naleway from Nalchik were able to transfer mother-in-law several letters — wrote them by hand on a sheet of paper and asked the guard to take a picture and send image. Aisha also came in the IG, along with her husband, Nadar Efendieva.
Madina Kaloeva claims that her son is actually squeezed out of the country — in 2014 man the day of his birth was detained by police on suspicion of extremism and tortured by electrocution (the mother believes that the real reason was personal revenge). After that, She almost immediately left with his family first to Egypt, where he was in the “Caucasus Emirate”, and a year later, through Turkey came to Iraq. Trying to protect the daughter, Madina Kaloeva even compares it with the wives of the Decembrists.
In the IG, according to Madina, her son did not fight, but “an electrician”. Details about life he did not tell me but sent me pictures — one of the last was the portrait of a baby in the bright blue pool in the summer of 2017. In late August, immediately after the liberation of tel afar by the Iraqi authorities, the family was captured and separated. Aisha with her two children was taken away by “Hashd al-SHAABI”, and what exactly happened with Nadar, his wife and mother do not really know.
And Violated, and Aisha in messages repeatedly complained to relatives that women and children are beaten by the guards and the warden. Aisha mentions in the letters of their names:
“Abu safe, the washed-up creature, cruel” and military field commander, a “bald Abu Jafar”.
Correspondent Bi-bi-si Tim Huell managed to find Abu Jafar in Iraq by this description and meet him in February 2018. Interviews began with a conversation about rare Shabak ethnic group, which belongs to the field commander — sabaki massively suffered first from the “al-Qaeda” * then from the IG. In the middle of the conversation, the correspondent asked about the women and children. Abu Jafar confirmed that he held “200 of 210 people,” but denied the beating and said that it gave the prisoners a “very, very good conditions, they live in a five star hotel”.
Help us very bad, with me in the room of a hundred people. We’re in military territory. We are bad, why so long. It is very cold. Here the roof is dripping … my head hurts, I can’t, help, please, for the sake of Allah.From the letter Violated sister
Trying to ease your sister’s life, she decided to pay to a guard to buy things of first necessity. To transfer a Russia — Iraq was a non-obvious task. “We suffer well”, — says Irada fun.
In the end, the money she sent with one of the American systems of money transfers: she told the military what it is (he didn’t), she found the office in the city of Karbala.
The hardest thing was correctly transliterated Arabic name in Latin letters, to the transfer the recipient has been issued. Irada with a man exchanged photos, she sent the statement, and he in the built-in phone photo editor finger made corrections directly on top of the image.
However, to make things right has turned out not at once: “This poor guy for three days walked up and down”. But the guard did not complain and only melancholicus sent Russian phrases, compiled with the help of online translator: “I’m going home Now tired of walking”, “How much time is required to pray in the Bank”.
Irada in turn documented each step and sent the companion picture: here she is riding in a taxi, standing in line at the window. Once, upon seeing a photo of the taxi, the Iraqi military tersely replied, “Snow.” And when the Saga finally succeeded, the severe armed man sent an Emoji — three dancing women.
The collaboration was mutually beneficial: the guard could keep the difference between the value of things and money, and Irada is to take care of my sister and the other women.
Hammered in the search engine screens and were shown what to buy: diapers, girls warm suits, Quran SIS asked me to read, running shoes because my feet get cold, toothbrushes, shampoo, vitamins for children, cookies, candy, “Mars”, “Snickers” and “Coca-Cola”, gloves, pacifiers, bottles, flashlight, warm socks, womens Slippers, cotton swabs, throat syrup, towels, socks for babies.
The guard in turn overthrown in the proof of pictures of the items purchased. Between Irada and young military in General during this time has established a kind of friendship: they added each other on Instagram and share their photos of their own children.
Private transfer Irada sent the guard to buy her sister a small phone and SIM card. Because of this the girl was able to be constantly connected, to make selfies and send pictures of yourself and son.
In staccato messages Rushen told sister that fled from ISIS:
With the bombings.
Out.
As of kin.
Helicopter.
Stanley (probably “shoot” — approx. Bi-bi-si)
And I’m with the child running.
Rushen still dreamed of returning to civilian life: shopping, dental and doctor the cosmetician — teasing lips. But most just asked for help: “Bad. Want to go home”, “Damn, we live, and they’re”, “there is sickness Here”, “What are you four months to do something?”, “Do the panic”. The leitmotif are the words: “Tell Ziyad”.
She reassured: “Ziad knows”; “You are our beauty, don’t give up, I always wrote statements and the Embassy, in Grozny, all of you Ziadi pull”, “I love you and I’ll find you, I promise, I swear, I’ll find”.
“Sabsabi”, “Ramzan Kadyrov”, “Russia”
Ziad is Ziad Sabsabi, Senator and representative of the head of Chechnya in the Middle East and North Africa. It was he August 2017 direct export women and children from the areas liberated from ISIS. Oversees campaign Ramzan Kadyrov, the coordination of the relatives performs the member of the Council on human rights under the head of Chechnya Kheda Saratova previously created by the Agency “Lens”. In the list of women and children, who is wanted in Syria and Iraq (it is compiled on the basis of expression of their loved ones), according to Saratova, now almost 2,000 people.
In total, from August to Russia flew nine aircraft. Peak the rescue operation came in the autumn of 2017. ALPA Gaziyeva, Executive Director of the organization, said in an interview in order to be saved, you need to reach the Syrian cities of al-Qamishli or al-Hasaka, and then enough to come to the mosque and say the words “Sabsabi”, “Ramzan Kadyrov” or “Russia”.
However, in October of the Dagestan security forces arrested two residents returned to the Republic. In November, another girl, a resident of Ingushetia, was literally removed from the plane prior to the return to Russia and left in Syria. The cause is unknown — in a report of TV channel “Rain” version of the sounds that return banned intelligence agencies of Ingushetia, however, the head of the Republic Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in turn, said that he learned about the incident only in hindsight. When speaking about women. in General, the head of Ingushetia admitted that the idea of their return is skeptical: “If you take the human, I believe that they purposefully went with their husbands to fight. To kill people”.
In December, Ziyad Sabsabi explained that under the new rules, all women older than 14 years who visited in the IG, before returning home should stand trial in Iraq. They are accused of terrorism and illegal border crossing.
At the end of February Rusanu with her son and other women and children of Abu Jafar also handed over the official authorities of Iraq. At the moment it is unclear even the exact number issued to the official representative of the foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told about twenty-two women, and Kheda Saratova handed over to the RIA Novosti news Agency a list of twenty five names. It is still unknown how many Russian women now awaiting trial in Baghdad, Ziyad Sabsabi, a figure of 57, and Maria Zakharova at a briefing in April 2018 — the number “50 to 70” and emphasized that it is a question of persons merely suspected of having Russian citizenship. In case of confirmation of the nationality of women the Russian Embassy in Iraq “ensure their rights to protection by the local lawyers,” said Zakharov.
On the way from captivity in the Central women’s prison of Baghdad Rushen managed to make one last selfie. From prison she wrote Irade that phone down to 20% charge, no outlet, that the conditions are even worse captivity: “and Those, it turns out, was good”. Soon, apparently, the phone of the girl was found and seized. Her last message before disconnection — “shakedown specific”, “khalas, khalas”. In Arabic the word means “end”.
The number of messages that a former security guard already Violated goodbye sent Irade, was an Emoji: the Iraq flag, heart, flag Russia.“My daughter could not be a terrorist”
In December, before sister first time out of captivity, she had a dream. “I couldn’t sleep and lay there and prayed, saying, Lord, when my little sister gonna show up? Give me at least some opportunity to know if she’s still alive. I lay with my eyes closed, as if talking to her. Asked: where are you, tell me what you what you are. And then I had a dream that I pick up the phone and talk with her.”
After receiving the news that Rushen alive, she along with her young son and mother moved from his native Simferopol to Moscow in a rented apartment outside Moscow that all the time to devote to the salvation sisters:
My sister swore that I would defend her honor and dignity in every person. If not, I will with each person to talk, to understand that she’s innocent.
Family husband — he is from Dagestan and is engaged in “business and charity”. Looking for help she even got to Ramzan Kadyrov arrived in Grozny, came to his native village, stood at the gate and started to cry excitedly. The girl was admitted, questioned, and listened.
In April, about twenty-five women came to the Embassy of Iraq with a series of pickets — their daughters, sisters, and grandchildren or like Rushen, awaiting trial in the Central women’s prison in Baghdad, or altogether missing in the IG.
All participants of the action insist that their loved ones-husbands have taken to the territory of ISIS against the wishes of hiding the truth from them or openly threatening to take the kids.
They claim that IG young women shot and fought and devoted his time exclusively to the children and the household, cried and wanted to return to Russia. One of the posters read: “My daughter could not be a terrorist — it is every year to give birth children.” On another was written:
Our girls did not go to war, they followed husbands, as required by Islam and Orthodoxy.
In April a court in Baghdad has to make the first sentences: 17 number two Russians sentenced to life imprisonment according to Maria Zakharova, this means twenty years in prison, followed by deportation. Now both women are waiting for appeal. The same term was a French citizen. Still, at least eleven women of different nationalities in 2018 was sentenced to death.
But there are exceptions: in February, a German citizen, native of Chechnya, was acquitted on charges of terrorism and sentenced to a fine of $ 400 and a year in prison for illegal border crossing. The stories of my mother, who asked for anonymity as he wants, “to get the story behind” — Germany gave her daughter a lawyer who was in touch with parents.
Following a trial in Baghdad on April 29. To make decisions, according to Maria Zakharova, need to do immediately eleven the Russians.
When there are forces, she goes to Moscow for shopping and buying things to your little nephew, whom she is seen only in the photos:
Such cool sneakers I bought, and they to him a little already. Jeans bought him, too small have become. How much can already? In such fashion, and he’s not going.
*ISIS, “Islamic state”, the “Caucasus Emirate” and “al-Qaeda” — an organization recognized as terrorist, their activity is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Bi-bi-si has no known information about the preparation, execution or planning of any of referred to in article persons crimes, the responsibility for not informing of which to law enforcement authorities is established by article 205.6 of the criminal code.