Article content

Thwaiba Kanafani shuffles around her cozy east Toronto apartment, daughter Gazal trailing at her side, pulling at her pink and white fleece: “Mama, Mama,” she calls.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canadian mother vows to rejoin Syrian civil war to help rebels in fight against Assad Back to video

The three-year-old girl clamours briefly into her mother’s arms, then settles at a toddler-sized plastic table to play with beads.

Her daughter is too young to understand what Ms. Kanafani had been up to, but her seven-year-old son Omar does.

“My son loves it. He understands,” she says. “Me and his father say that I’m going to go help other kids. So he loves that, he loves that mommy is helping other kids.”

Up until three weeks ago, the 42-year-old engineer and mother of two was an active member of the Free Syrian Army, scoping potential targets in Syria, sleeping on the concrete floor of rebel bunkers, or co-ordinating rebel activities in nearby Turkey.

[np-related /]

Ms. Kanafani returned home after she ran out of money, and because she needed to care for her children, she says. She hopes to rejoin the war effort as soon as she can.