Local media in Turkey are reporting that a 15-year-old Indonesian girl has been rescued by authorities after being forced to wed an ISIS fugitive in the Turkish province of Adana.
According to Hurriyet Daily News, the girl was found in the home of a 36-year-old ISIS militant during an anti-terror operation on June 22. Authorities say the militant bought the girl for marriage from her parents in the capital city of Istanbul.
An investigation into the case is being carried out, which will include a determination of whether or not her family is also affiliated with the terror group. The girl will be extradited at the completion of the investigation.
Neither the Indonesian Foreign Ministry nor the Indonesian Embassy in Istanbul have confirmed the news, but a senior anti-terror official in Indonesia said it’s very likely to be true.
“Sexual abuse, trafficking of women, those are things ISIS do. There, they have markets (to buy) wives. For example, there was a family who told us that their daughter was almost forcefully wed to an ISIS fighter,” said Hamidin, director of the Prevention Department at the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), as quoted by BBC Indonesia yesterday.
Around 500-600 Indonesians are believed to have joined up with ISIS in Syria at the moment. Last month, a recent returnee told the media that she and her family left for Syria because they were enticed by promises of high paying jobs and free healthcare, only to be met with the reality that the men were forced to fight while the women were merely objects to be married.
Nevertheless, a recent study by security think tank Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) earlier this year showed that an increasing number of Indonesian women are flocking to join ISIS in the Middle East, and are increasingly eager to get involved in radicalism themselves.
