Article content continued

But as ISIL has lost much of its territory against Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian rebel forces backed by international air strikes, and as the extremist group has become increasingly isolated, brutal and paranoid, life has become more difficult.

One German ISIL bride who left the jihadist group and is now living in a rebel-held area of northern Syria, told The Daily Telegraph she thought around 30 to 35 European women had left the caliphate since the beginning of the year.

“Dozens of the women have left ISIL areas and tried to get to Turkey since the beginning of the year, including about five to 10 Britons,” the 28-year-old said, using the name Umm Aisha to protect her identity. She said most ISIL wives and their young children were kept together in madhafas, or safe houses, away from their husbands. “When your husband is dead, or the situation is dangerous, the women are brought to houses where they live all together.

“It’s like being a chicken in a cage. Women are treated very badly, they are like slaves, with no freedom to even leave the house.”

Under sharia, women must observe a grieving period of at least four months and 10 days for their late husbands, but Umm Aisha said widows were being married off by ISIL to another man in as little as a week.

“The men have become even more brutal recently as the caliphate collapses and they are losing territory,” she said. “I would say 35 per cent of those who leave are doing it because their husband is dead, the rest is a mixture of their husbands sending them away to safer places and just being disillusioned.”

She said ISIL fighters caught sending their family outside of the caliphate were punished with either prison or execution.