Kimberly Gwen Polman

Kimberly Gwen Polman (born 1972) is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, who travelled to Daesh occupied territory in 2015, and married an Islamic militant she had befriended online.[1][2][3] In 2019, after she surrendered to forces allied to the United States, Polman told reporters she deeply regretted her actions.[4]

Kimberly Gwen Polman
Born (1972-09-29) September 29, 1972
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanada
United States

Early life

Born September 29, 1972. Polman's mother is American, and her father Canadian. She was raised as a Reformed Mennonite, but later converted to Islam.[1]

In 2011, the Soroptimist International issued her a Women's Opportunity Award.[5] Her citation said she was working on a diploma in Legal Administration, and planned to work as a children's advocate.[6]

Time in Syria

Polman had taken an interest in nursing, and her online penpal, who said his name was Abu Aymen, told her that her nursing skills were needed in the caliphate. The two later married.[1]

In early 2015, Polman travelled from Vancouver to Istanbul on her US passport. She told her family that she was going to Austria for two weeks.[1]

Polman says she had grown disenchanted with Daesh by 2016, and tried to escape.[1] She says she was captured, and imprisoned, in Raqqa, where she endured brutal interrogation and rape.[2]

Polman was held in the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria, where she was held with New Jersey-born Hoda Muthana.[7] Polman left three adult children in Canada when she travelled to Istanbul.[8] Polman's siblings told The New York Times that she had a hard life, and that they had been unable to help her.[9] Howard Eisenberg, an immigration lawyer in Polman's home town, told local reporters for CHCH-TV that he anticipates her struggle to return to Hamilton to be a long one.[10] Polman was arrested by Canadian authorities upon her arrival in Montreal Canada from Syria on October 26th under Section 810 of the Canadian Criminal Code. Her lawyer said authorities are seeking a peace bond.[11]

Ian Austen, one of The New York Times's Canadian correspondents wrote about Polman, after discussing her with Rukmini Callimachi, The New York Times's reporter who first found her, in the refugee camp in Syria.[12] He wrote that Callimachi speculated that she first identified herself as a Canadian to her American captors because she would be treated more leniently, as a Canadian, only to realize that Canadians were "in limbo". Callamachi speculated that Polman started to identify as an American when she realized that while Americans might face prosecution upon repatriation, at least they were being repatriated.

Polman's case was one profiled in a study by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, as to whether individuals had been recruited to join ISIS solely through online coaching.[13] Her interviews revealed she was lonely and vulnerable following a brutal gang-rape left her alienated from her children and community. She believed her recruiter who promised her she could restore her honour, and purity, if only she came to Daesh to volunteer her nursing skills.[13]

References
  1. Natalie Musumeci (2019-02-20). "Another ISIS bride pleading to come home to US or Canada". New York Post. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20. A dual citizen of the US and Canada, who left the Great White North four years ago to join ISIS, is holed up in a refugee camp in Syria with the Alabama "ISIS bride" — and pleading to return home, according to a report.
  2. "Canadian woman who left to join ISIS in Syria wants to come home". Canoe.ca. 2019-02-21. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. The woman claims she tried to escape the camp a year after her arrival. She said she was captured, imprisoned, interrogated and raped.
  3. Kelly McLaughlin (2019-02-19). "ISIS brides from Canada, the US, and Europe are asking to return home years after fleeing for Syria. Here are their stories". This is insider. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Polman told The Times she wasn't interested in the violent crimes ISIS participated in, and didn't know what to believe was real.
  4. "An American ISIS Militant Wife Who Left For Syria Now Wants To Come Back Home". News World India. 2019-02-20. Archived from the original on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-20. Kimberly Gwen Polman, who possess dual citizenship of the United States and Canadian. Both women, interviewed by The New York Times at the camp, said they were trying to figure out how to have their passports reissued, and how to win the sympathy of the two nations they scorned.
  5. Charlie Smith (2019-02-20). "Former Vancouver-area woman travelled abroad to marry ISIS member, according to New York Times". Georgia Straight. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20. The New York Times reported that Kimberly Gwen Polman, 46, married an Islamic State fighter whom she met online.
  6. "11th annual Women's Recognition Awards". Tri-city News. 2011-03-18. p. 14. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2019-02-20. Kimberly Polman - Single mom of three children is currently a student at Douglas College working on her Legal Administration Diploma. Her ultimate goal is to work as a child advocate.
  7. Kim Hjelmgaard, Michael Collins (2019-02-19). "President Trump: ISIS wife Hoda Muthana won't be allowed to return to the United States". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20. All were taken into custody. Muthana may be the first American spouse or partner of an Islamic State fighter who has sought to return home. The New York Times has reported that another woman, dual U.S.-Canadian national Kimberly Gwen Polman, 46, is also in the al-hawl refugee camp in Syria. She left Canada in 2015.
  8. Rukmini Callimachi, Catherine Porter (2019-02-19). "2 American Wives of ISIS Militants Want to Return Home". The New York Times. al Hawl Camp, Syria. p. A1. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2019-02-20. Ms. Muthana and Ms. Polman acknowledged in the interview here that many Americans would question whether they deserved to be brought back home after joining one of the world's deadliest terrorist groups.
  9. Rukmini Callimachi, Catherine Porter, Carmela Fragomeni (2019-02-20). "Hamilton-born ISIL bride wants to come home". The Hamilton Spectator. al Hawl Camp, Syria. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20. Kimberly Gwen Polman, 46, surrendered last month to coalition forces fighting ISIL and is detained in a camp in northeastern Syria, along with an Alabama woman, Hodan Muthana.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. "Hamilton-born woman who joined ISIS wants to come home". CHCH-TV. 2019-02-21. Archived from the original on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-22. Hamilton immigration lawyer Howard Eisenberg says Polman's journey back to Canada could be a very lengthy one and it would begin by the Canadian government either revoking her Canadian passport or denying her application for a new one.
  11. Burke, Ashley (2022-10-26). "2 women arrested in Canada after coming home from Syrian camp for ISIS fighters' families". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2023-04-07. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  12. Ian Austen (2019-02-22). "They Left Canada for ISIS. Should They Be Allowed Home?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-02-23. Retrieved 2019-02-24. She then got to the camp and she started hearing stories of Canadians who has been in limbo for a long time. She learned that Americans are at least repatriating their citizens even though most of them are being repatriated directly to jail. So I think she had a change of heart and decided to identify through her other nationality in the hope that she can get out of there.
  13. Anne Speckhard; Molly Ellenberg (2020-04-15). "Is Internet Recruitment Enough to Seduce a Vulnerable Individual into Terrorism?". Homeland Security Today. Retrieved 2020-05-23. Kimberly, like many of the others, had push factors as well as the online seduction. One of her rapists was put on trial and it was featured in the news, causing her massive post-traumatic flashbacks and suicidal feelings. Instead of committing suicide she decided to believe her online ISIS husband when he told her, 'Come where you are loved. Your children don't even see you. You have skills. You shouldn't be alone.' She now states that it wasn't just ISIS propaganda that pulled individuals into the group, but real online intimacies that made them abandon them homes and travel across continents. 'It was not propaganda that worked on us. Many of us didn't even see the videos.'
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