LONDON: A French woman accused of acting as a midwife for Daesh is facing more than 30 years’ imprisonment, The Times reported.
Douha Mounib, 32, is on trial in Paris after having spent several years in a French prison following her arrest in Turkiye in 2017 and subsequent repatriation.
She is one of more than 30 women from France alleged to be former members of Daesh, with many having returned to the country from Syria or Turkiye following the collapse of the terror group.
Mounib, who was completing her third year of midwifery studies at the time she first traveled to Syria in 2014, returned to the caliphate a second time a year later.
Declaring that she “wanted to fight for Islam and Allah,” Mounib delivered 12 babies and produced online Islamist propaganda during her time in Syria, French prosecutors said.
In a tweet at the time, Mounib said: “The man fights but it is the wife who raises the future mujahedeen.”
However, she told French authorities: “I never intended to turn my children into future mujahedeen.
“In the same way, when I was delivering babies, I was never doing it with the aim of delivering future fighters.”
While living in Syria, Mounib gave birth to a daughter, who is now in the care of social services.
Two years ago, while imprisoned in France, Mounib escaped her cell by creating a hole in a wall using a spoon. She escaped to the outer area of the prison before being captured.
If convicted in her trial, she faces a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment for associating with a terrorist group.
