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Tareena Shakil: British Mom Joined ISIS, Took Along Toddler

Tareena Shakil: British Mom Joined ISIS, Took Along Toddler

Tareena Shakil after her arrest. (REUTERS/West Midlands Police/Handout via Reuters)

By    |   Tuesday, 02 February 2016 08:00 AM EST

Tareena Shakil of Britain was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for joining the Islamic State terrorist group.

Shakil, 26, traveled to Syria in October 2014 with her toddler son and became a member of ISIS, living among the militants for three months.

"What is clear from the evidence is that you had researched and were well aware of what assistance women could provide for ISIS," Judge Melbourne Inman told Shakil during her sentencing, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"Your role would not be to fight, it would be to be a wife and mother — to produce the next generation of fighters."

In speaking about her toddler son, the judge said, "Most alarmingly you took your toddler son to Syria knowing how he would be used…You allowed him to be photographed next to an AK-47."

While in Raqqa, ISIS's self-declared capital city, Shakil wrote to her family back home in Britain.

"I left to build us all a house in heaven, Allah promised us heaven if we sacrifice our worldly life. I’m not coming back," she wrote, according to Newsweek.

After living with ISIS fighters for months, Shakil traveled to the Turkish border and handed herself and her son over to the Turkish military.

Shakil told the judge she left the UK in order to escape an "unhappy family life," the BBC reported.

Shakil and her lawyers maintained throughout the court proceedings that Shakil had been captured and forced to pretend that she was happy to live with ISIS.

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TheWire
Tareena Shakil of Britain was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for joining the Islamic State terrorist group.
tareena shakil, british, mom, joins, isis, toddler
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2016-00-02
Tuesday, 02 February 2016 08:00 AM
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