Ex-wife of IS leader reveals about married life

Saja al-Dulaim, the ex-wife of the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) terrorist group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has just shared information about the mysterious personality of this terrorist "boss" and about the fear she faces despite divorcing the man wanted worldwide.

Saja al-Dulaimi parted ways with Baghdadi seven years ago. (Photo: Alarabiya)

Born into a relatively well-off family in Iraq, Saja al-Dulaimi married Baghdadi in 2008, who at that time did not have the extremist, bloodthirsty ideology he has today.

“I married a normal person, a university lecturer,” Dulaimi said. “He was a family man.” But Dulaimi was not Baghdadi’s only wife. “He went to work and came home to his family.”

Saja al-Dulaimi, 28, said al-Baghdadi was a good man and an ideal father to his children. “The way he was with them… He was a teacher, and you know how teachers are. He knew how to take care of them, better than their mother,” Dulaim said.

However, during their time together, the two did not talk much. According to Dulaim, Baghdadi had a “mysterious personality”. In addition, having to share a husband with another woman was not easy for al-Dulaim. “It is difficult for two wives to live together”. And so their marriage ended 7 years ago.

Dulaimi claimed she fled Baghdadi after discovering she was pregnant. She did not explain why, but said only that “I was not happy.” She also told Expressen TV that she did not love the IS leader. “My leaving is proof of that.”

After his wife left, Baghdadi tried several times to reconcile. “But I was determined,” Dulaimi said. The last time they spoke was in 2009, when Baghdadi tried to persuade Dulaimi to return.

The single mother did not tell her ex-husband that she had given birth to a daughter, but Baghdadi later found out. “He said he would take her when I remarried,” Dulaimi said, adding that she feared for her daughter’s safety after what Baghdadi had done.

Dulaimi and his children were released in December 2015 in a prisoner exchange. (Photo: Republica)

“I was afraid of everyone, that’s what happened. She’s the one who’s hurting now. She’s carrying the whole world’s disaster on her shoulders,” said Dulaimi, who said she hoped her daughter could study abroad. Dulaimi was arrested in Lebanon before being released late last year.

“I want to live in a European country, not an Arab country,” said the young mother. “I want my children to live and study. Even if their mother was married to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a terrorist… what crime have the children committed?”, said Dulaimi.

Dulaimi said it saddened her to think that she would always be seen as Baghdadi’s ex-wife. “I am seen as a terrorist, but I am not,” the young mother said, adding that Europeans should accept her, regardless of her past relationship with Baghdadi. “What was my fault for marrying him in 2008? Now we are divorced. I am the one who left him, not the other way around.”

“I am a woman who has been through a lot, and suffered a lot in prison,” said Dulaimi, who was arrested in Lebanon in December 2014 while trying to enter the country from Syria. “Now I want to settle down.”

“If I wanted to live with him, I would have lived like a queen,” Dulaimi asserted. “I had the opportunity to go live with him, and have a lot of money. But I don’t need money. I want to live freely, to live like everyone else.”

According to Dan Tri