The first wife of the former leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, revealed unprecedented secrets about his life, which she experienced before his death while he controlled areas in Syria and Iraq. She also disclosed details about his marriage to the American aid worker Kayla, who was surprised to find herself in a safe house in Raqqa, Syria, with her.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from inside an Iraqi prison, "Umm Hudaifa" stated that she lived with al-Baghdadi in 2014 in Raqqa, but he often hid in various locations to avoid security targeting.
Shocking Surprise
The widow of al-Baghdadi recounted that she had a television in the house, which she secretly watched while he was away, believing he thought it was broken due to her isolation for years, away from watching television or any other technology like mobile phones.
She explained that one day he sent two guards to pick up two of their children, thinking he was in another place in Raqqa, but when she turned on the television, she was surprised to see his first public appearance during a sermon at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, where the children were with him.
Umm Hudaifa, born in 1976 to an Iraqi family, married Ibrahim Awad al-Badri, later known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in 1999 after he completed his studies in Islamic law at the University of Baghdad. She describes him at that time as "religious but not extremist; he was conservative but open-minded."
Assault in Detention
The widow revealed that in 2004, a year after the invasion of Iraq, U.S. forces arrested al-Baghdadi and detained him at a facility in Abu Ghraib for nearly a year alongside several other men who later became prominent members of the organization. In the years following his release, he said he had changed. She explained, "He became quick to anger and would have fits of rage."
She added, "He started suffering from psychological issues." When she asked him about the reason for his change, he told her he "went through something incomprehensible." She believes he "was assaulted while in detention," although he never said so explicitly.
The widow noted that they had fake identities, and when al-Baghdadi married a second wife, she requested a divorce. However, she did not agree to his condition to abandon their children, so she stayed with him. After moving to Syria, he began wearing Afghan attire, grew a beard, and carried a gun. Umm Hudaifa stated that she argued with her husband and accused him of "staining his hands with the blood of innocent people."
She described how her husband communicated with the leaders of the organization through his laptop. She said, "I tried to open it to see what was happening, but I was technologically illiterate, and I was always asked for the password."
Marriage to American Kayla
Umm Hudaifa stated that two kidnapped girls were brought to her house. Then, in 2015, while she was in a safe house in Raqqa, she heard a voice upstairs and went to check. In the bedroom, she found American aid worker Kayla Mueller, who had been held hostage for 18 months and later died in captivity.
Umm Hudaifa mentioned that Kayla "looked happy... she told me she was the sheikh's wife, and I realized she meant my husband." She added that Kayla spoke of him "with affection," which made her feel jealous and angry as she struggled to save her sick daughter, Nusaybah, who later died.
Interestingly, Kayla's mother, Marsha, claimed that her fellow captives' accounts showed that Kayla "did not marry that man; rather, al-Baghdadi took her by force and exploited her, and she would come back from his room crying."
The circumstances surrounding Kayla's death remain unclear. At that time, ISIS claimed she was killed in an airstrike, but Washington denied this, while a security source in Iraq confirmed she was killed by ISIS.
Circumstances of His Death
In 2019, U.S. forces raided al-Baghdadi's hideout with some family members in northwestern Syria. Al-Baghdadi detonated an explosive vest when cornered in a tunnel, killing himself and two of his children, while two of his four wives were killed in crossfire.
Umm Hudaifa was not there; she was living in Turkey under an alias and was arrested in 2018. She was returned to Iraq in February of the same year and has since been held in prison while authorities investigate her role in the organization's activities.
Her eldest daughter, Umaima, lives in prison with her. Meanwhile, Fatima, who is 12 years old, is in a juvenile detention center. One of her sons was killed in an airstrike near Homs, while another son died alongside his father in the tunnel. The youngest was placed in an orphanage.
