Cape Town - The 15-year-old schoolgirl from Cape Town who was intercepted by authorities as she attempted to make her way to Johannesburg and then on to Turkey to join the Islamic State group has now been released into the care of her family.
The girl, who will not be named in order to protect her identity, was headed to Turkey, according to her parents, who communicated with Independent Media on Monday.
Most Islamic State recruits are flown to Turkey and are then taken by road across Turkey to the border with Syria.
British Airways confirmed to Independent Media that children between the ages of 12 and 18 are allowed to travel alone.
The parents would not speak about who purchased their daughter’s airline ticket or facilitated her travel, but have said that she was motivated by political considerations.
According to her father, her motivation in travelling to Islamic State-controlled areas was to do humanitarian work and report on what was happening on the ground as she was concerned that media reports were inaccurate.
Relatives have acknowledged that the girl was naive about the dangerous conditions into which she would have been thrust. “Parents must be made aware of the dangers of the internet and social media,” her father has said.
Upon joining a Sharia military camp, the South African girl would likely have undergone intensive weapons training and fundamentalist ideological education. The usual process is a 45-day boot camp followed by a three-month weapons camp before being thrust into battle.
It is likely that she would have been married off to a jihadi and been prevented from travelling outside of IS areas. In these areas recruits have received 80 lashes for watching sport. Listening to music is forbidden.
In order to counter the aggressive recruitment of youngsters by IS, “a lot of work has to be done”, admitted State Security Minister David Mahlobo.
Foreign Editor