The True Story of How Kerala Women Became ISIS Brides
See here how two women have actually experiences the movie ‘The Kerela Story’ and are still a part of ISIS! Know their story!
You all know there is considerable controversy surrounding the movie The Kerala Story. Some states like Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh have made it tax-free, while states like Tamil Nadu & West Bengal have banned it. ISH News released a video about this news. We talked about the movie in short and also about the controversy. In case you have missed it, click here to watch - The Kerala Story: Will Kerala Become Terrorist State? | ISH News
In that video, we told you about 4 women who had converted to Islam and joined ISIS. The Kerala Story movie is based on these 4 women. In today’s video, we will tell you the true story of 2 of these women and their life journey from Kerala to ISIS. The story is extremely heartbreaking and sad. Make sure you watch till the end. Let’s get started. The 1st woman’s name is Nimisha Sampath. She was a Hindu from Kerala. She was studying BDS and was supposed to appear for her final exams. A man named Abdul Rashid radicalized her. She converted to Islam and changed her name to Fatima. There were two brothers named Bexin Vincent & Bestin Vincent. Both were Christians. They had been radicalized by a man named Arshi Qureshi. Bexin became Isa and Bestin became Yahiya.
In November 2015, Fatima, a BDS student, went missing from her college just before her final exams. Nimisha got married to Bexin. At the same time, Bexin’s brother Bestin met his childhood crush, Merrin Jacobs. Both were from Kerala but Merrin was working in IBM company in Mumbai. He brainwashed her, told her to read the Quran, and said Islam is the best religion in the world. Merrin returned to Kerala and got married to Bestin. Merrin changed her name to Mariyam. Both Fatima and Merrin went missing soon after that. Mrs Mini Jacob and Mrs Bindu Sampath - their mothers - said they saw very little of their daughters after that. Recalling her last meeting with Nimisha Mrs Sampath said, “Nimisha came to our house on 16 April 2016 and told us they were going to Sri Lanka to pursue a carpet business with the money Bexin's father gave them. She was dressed in a burqa and was seven months pregnant.”
She suspected something was wrong when she stopped receiving messages from Fatima after two weeks.
Mrs Sampath said, “On May 8, I tried to report to the police that my daughter may be in danger but they dismissed my concern.” She then went to see Yahiya and Esa's parents. They told her their children were in Afghanistan – they had been receiving text messages from their sons. Fatima & Merrin was not the only one to go missing. There were 19 other boys and girls who went missing from Kerala. After 2016, Nimisha & Merrin along with their husbands moved to Syria to join ISIS. Their aim was to spread Islam around the whole world and fight with people who were against ISIS. She was also 7 months pregnant at that time. Nimisha gave birth to a girl named Ummu Kulusu while she was with ISIS. From Syria, they moved to Afghanistan after some time.
Following the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a group of 10 women and 21 children including Nimisha and 4-year-old Ummu Kulusu surrendered before Afghan authorities in October 2019. They surrendered because their husbands were killed in the fight with the Taliban. Nimisha’s husband died after a US air strike on an ISIS base. Nimisha and her daughter were put in jail in Kabul. Along with them, there were 400 ISIS members in the jail. After that, it became known that some Indians who had joined ISIS were lodged in an Afghan jail.
Mrs Bindu Sampath said, ‘“My children were religious and patriotic. My son wanted to be a military officer and daughter chose to be a dentist,” Bindu Sampath had said that her daughter was “brainwashed” at a coaching centre in Thiruvananthapuram by terrorists and a doctor. She also said that Nimisha didn’t know that her husband was a ISIS terrorist. Bindu Sampath filed a petition seeking the repatriation of her daughter and four-year-old granddaughter. Bindu alleged that her daughter was a victim of targeted conversion to Islam through marriage or, ‘Love Jihad’. She said, ‘I’ve heard that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a very kind-hearted person. I have full faith in him. Once Nimisha is in India, she can be given punishment as per Indian law and the child can be rehabilitated. But please bring her back to India.” Mariyam's mother Mini Jacob believes her daughter and the others who went to Afghanistan were “brainwashed” into joining the group. She said, ‘“Merrin was always a very loving and religious child. We would go to church together. We did everything together. They were misled with the promise of paradise for Muslims.” Notably, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, jails were broken and many former prisoners were set free. Since the Taliban are running the country and it is not formally recognized by most governments in the world, there is no status update on former prisoners of the erstwhile government of Afghanistan. Indian citizens residing in Afghanistan legally with valid documents were evacuated by special flights arranged by the Indian government.
Reportedly, Nimisha Fathima and her daughter were among the hundreds of prisoners released by the Taliban, and the Taliban authorities had offered to deport them to India, along with other Indians. The National investigation agency interviewed the four women living with children in Kabul. During the interview with the women, the investigation agencies found out that they have a strong stance in favour of Islamic terrorism. This is why the Indian government decided not to bring them back. There is no information about Nimisha right now but Merrin had given an interview to National while she was in Jail in 2020. Mariyam, speaking calmly in fluent English while nursing her baby said, “We came here because we wanted to live in a place with Sharia, and nothing else. We were happy here. Asked why she chose to join a group with a history of extreme violence, she said: “I had some idea of the brutality, but that is not what was highlighted to us.” “We were told there were lots of killings and bombings here, but to be honest we did not witness that. We lived in an area where all that was not happening. I led a very peaceful life. My husband provided me with everything I needed,”
However, as the conversation progressed, Mariyam slowly opened up about the harsh realities of life under ISIS. She admitted that Yahiya and the other men of the group were involved in fighting Afghan forces. They were paid an undisclosed salary and additional living expenses. Within weeks of arriving their area came under fire from Afghan forces. They had to leave behind everything and escape. They have all our documents including my Indian passport. After Yahiya was killed in battle with Afghan forces, she was soon remarried to another member of the group, a step she said she took reluctantly. “It is difficult for a woman to be independent here, or live without a man,” Mariyam said. “The system is not like India or elsewhere, not even like Kabul.”Her second husband, Abdul Rashid, was already married to Ayesha, formerly known as Sonia Sebastian, another Indian recruit who is in prison with Mariyam. Mariyam said the women, who have 15 children with them, just wanted “to go back home” despite facing charges which could lead to life terms, including supporting a terrorist organisation, criminal conspiracy and “waging war against Asiatic powers in alliance with the government of India”. “It is a big concern that the children will be separated from us [in India]. But we prefer to go back because we don't have anyone here. We came with our families but we don't have them anymore. There is no point staying here.” Mariyam said they had been visited by Indian officials but had heard nothing further. Merrin has has been widowed twice since coming to Afghanistan and has two children: a 10-month-old baby and another child, aged 3.
As they wait to hear their fate, the women often ponder the decisions they made that brought them there, Mariyam said. “There have been regrets here and there,” she said, comforting the baby in her arms. “But right now I am blank, I don't know what my future will be.”
