(Zaman Al Wasl)- Jihadists’ influx to Syria has deepened another fraction in the war-torn society due to the illegal marriage from jihadists and hundreds of Syrian children who were born to unidentified fathers.
Local activists said at least 2200 Syrian women got married to foreign fighters, 1350 of them have 2500 children.
Amani, 26, one of the women victims of these marriages, said: "Two years ago, one of the jihadists, Abu Zubair Turkestani, asked to marry me. Within a week I married him on a $ 400 dowry."
The most complicating factor is the anonymity of the husband’s real names. They all go by nicknames, which makes the marriage invalid, because knowing the real name is a condition of the validity of the marriage contract, Shariah scholars say.
During the first year of Amani's marriage, she had problems and disagreements. So, she asked for divorce, but her parents opposed my divorce.
"After a month of our marriage, he confessed to me that he was married, divorced his wife and had no children," she added.
"After 9 months I was blessed with a child, shortly after giving birth, he remarried, which doubled his period of absence from home, which was basically few".
According to activists, most of these marriages are unstable due to the fact that the husbands are in 'war state' and it is difficult to take their families along, which affects negatively the children's future. As for these children, they are illegal, therefore prevented from of all their rights, such as education, inheritance and family’s last name.
Three months after giving birth, Amani's husband was killed. Now she lives in her father's home in the town of Jericho in Idlib.
More than half of Idlib province is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, while Turkish-backed rebels hold much of the rest.
After husband's death, his jihadist friends asked Amani to marry them, but Amani refused over fears "they will take my daughter from me.” She said.
The only information Amani had about her husband that he was from Turkestan. "I have registered my daughter on my family's last name. I have no proof of my marriage."
"I advise the rest of the Syrian women to check the real name of any foreigner fighter before marrying him and to register her marriage in court so that she would have a valid legal marriage. If only can go back in time, I would not do it at all," she concluded.
Activists organized last Year a campaign in the town of Ma’arret al-Nu’man in Idlib countryside, called it "Who is Your Husband" to promote social awareness and to ask wives to install marriage contracts with all the husband's data in order to preserve the legally and morally the identity of her child.
In another case, Reem, 32, says an immigrant asked to marry her through one of her friends. She agreed reluctantly, but one week of marriage was enough to recognize that she made a mistake when she was insulted and beaten.
"I felt deaf and dumb. I did not understand their language. After six months of suffering, I asked for a divorce. He refused to divorce me until I gave up all my rights," The girl who descended from rural Idlib summarized her suffering in a statement to "Zaman Al Wasl".
The same tragedy was repeated by Umm Abdullah, who comes from Deir Ezzor, a widow who is raising her four children. She married an immigrant who was nicknamed "Abu Abdurrahman El Tunisi" without a dowry or any preparation for the wedding, such as Syrian customs, she says.
"I was living alone after my husband death and I refused to marry again. After Abu Abdurrahman frequented my house to help me, he offered me marriage more than once I accepted to marry him, but the marriage lasted only a few months. He left me, I was pregnant then, and I do not know anything about him since then. I gave birth later on, due to poor conditions in Deir Ezzor, I fled to Idlib.
Idlib's population has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories in other parts of the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed to the northwestern province.
Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 560,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.
Zaman Al Wasl
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