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When Indonesian schoolgirl Nur Dhania
arrived in Syria in 2015, she knew almost immediately that convincing her
family to join her in the 'caliphate' was a catastrophic error.
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Just 16 years old at the time, Nur Dhania
said life under Islamic State rule was nothing like the paradise portrayed in
the group's propaganda. She felt duped — and totally responsible for her
family's predicament.
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"I was a spoiled brat. I refused to
listen to other people. I was arrogant, stubborn," she said.
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Nur Dhania was the first member of her
family to decide to leave Indonesia for the caliphate, a huge swath of
territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq, controlled by the
Islamic State.
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Incredibly, 25 of her relatives —
including her grandmother, sisters, parents, uncles, aunts and cousins;
followed her.
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But within a year, the family was
willing to risk everything to get home.
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[I WAS MESMERISED]
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Nur Dhania first heard about the Islamic
State group from her uncle, who is now in prison in Indonesia on terrorism
offences and was also instrumental in persuading other members of the extended
family to travel to Syria.
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That year — 2014 — she spent her school
holidays glued to social media, where she devoured everything she could find
about Islamic State and its promise of a 'paradise' in Syria.
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She claims she was never radicalised by
Islamic State or motivated by jihad, but was instead seduced by the promise of
a utopian life.
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"I was mesmerised," she said,
by Islamic State propaganda that offered free housing, education and
healthcare; jobs for everyone who joined the cause, and a promise to pay the
family's debts.
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She tried to convince her family of the
benefits of leaving Indonesia for Syria, and briefly ran away from home when
they refused to join her.
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Terrified for their daughter's safety,
Nur Dhania's parents eventually made a stunning choice.
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Her father Dwi Djoko Wiwoho abandoned
his middle-class job as a respected senior civil servant on Batam Island in
Indonesia's Riau Province.
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He sold the family's main home in
Jakarta to fund the voyage to Syria, via Turkey.
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In the weeks and months that followed,
26 family members travelled to the Middle East. Seven were detained in Turkey
and deported.
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But 19 family members, including Nur
Dhania and her parents, made it to Raqqa.
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[AK-47S, FILTHY DORMS AND RELENTLESS
MARRIAGE PROPOSALS]
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As soon as the family arrived in Syria,
they were segregated and forced to live apart. Women and girls were housed in a
filthy dormitory with other women they didn't know. Physical fights and
domestic disputes were common, as was theft.
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Islamic State fighters regularly came to
the dormitory to pressure Nur Dhania, her sisters and other young women to
marry. They repeatedly refused.
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Nur Dhania's male relatives were taken
to a weeks-long camp to learn about Sharia rule. They were taught to use
weapons, including AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. But Nur Dhania is
adamant that her father and uncles refused to fight.
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"All we wanted was to be
civilians," she claimed. Eventually the family was given a house by
Islamic State's administrators. But Nur Dhania said that when her male
relatives refused to take up weapons to fight, the Islamist regime turned on
them.
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"They ordered and forced people to
go to battle. But the Koran says that not everyone has to go to the war, and
some people need to stay in town," she said.
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They expected to find paradise in Raqqa.
But within a year, the family was falling apart. Her grandmother had died from
an illness. One uncle had been killed in an airstrike. Another had disappeared
altogether.
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The 17 survivors decided it was time to
make their escape.
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Full story on ABC News – 27 March 2019.
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