A Danish politics student who trained as a sniper to fight Isis in Syria has told how she has 'lost everything' after being labelled a terrorist - and now faces assassination by Isis.

Joanna Palani, 23, dropped out of college to join the battle against jihadis in Syria, spending nine-day stretches alone on the frontline with her Russian sniper rifle trained on Isis targets.

Now she has been forced into hiding and is facing jail in her adopted country for defying authorities who banned her from fighting jihadis.

But she is also under threat from the fanatics who want to capture her and use her as a sex slave or convert her to their branch of Islam.

In an exclusive interview, she told MailOnline why she risked her freedom to fight Isis in Syria, her gruelling regime as a crack-shot sniper, and the devastating toll of war on her life.

She said: 'I was willing to give up my life and my freedom to stop Isis advancing, so that everyone in Europe can be safe. This was my choice.

'But I am seen as a terrorist by my own country.'

Sniper: Joanna Palani, 23, dropped out of college to fight Isis and trained as a crack-shot sniper with the Syrian People's Protection Units, the YPG, spending nine days at a time on the frontline and wielding a Russian-made Dragunov sniper gun

Frontline: Joanna, 23, told MailOnline how she secretly returned to Syria last summer in defiance of a ban on international travel because she was desperate to return to the team she had trained to fight. 'I was wanting to be back with my girls in Syria...I did this for the safety of Europe'

Fighter: Joanna Palani defied Danish authorities to travel to the Syrian frontline last year, above, and is now facing jail in Copenhagen. She claimed to MailOnline: 'I did this for the safety of Europe. I don't want ISIS to get control of any European countries'

Crack-shot: Joanna has revealed sensational details of her life as a sniper with the Syrian People's Protection Units, the YPG last summer, pictured above, telling MailOnline: 'I like using my brain and my body to focus on the mission'

Joanna also admitted for the first time to MailOnline how she broke strict anti-terror laws to return to Syria last summer.

She said: 'I am sorry I had to break the travel ban [imposed on me], but I felt I had no choice. I did not expect to lose almost everything for fighting for the safety of the same country which is now trying to take my freedom.

I am a sniper. I like using my brain and my body to focus on the mission. You have to be very patient. You have to be very calm, you have to focus. Joanna Palani

'I live in one of the best countries in the world but I am hungry and homeless and freezing cold in bed at night, even though I am working full time. I don't trust anyone.'

Joanna insisted: 'I don't want ISIS to threaten European countries or people in the same way they have done in Kurdistan.'

The politics student was issued with a travel ban in September 2015. But she defied authorities to rejoin comrades in her battle-hardened Kurdish unit fighting ISIS in northern Syria from June to October 2016 because she says she couldn't bear to leave the women she had trained.

Now Joanna, who arrived in Denmark aged three with her family as refugees from Iraq, faces up two years behind bars for breaching the travel ban, intended to stop Danes from joining terror groups in the Middle East.

Fighting 'for freedom': 'I would have a headscarf over my head to cover my blonde hair and blankets over me. In the daylight we defend, at night hunt and shoot'

Hunted: Since returning from Isis the first time Joanna Palani suffered threats from Isis and claims she has a $1million 'kill or capture' bounty on her head. But now also facing jail after breaching a travel ban issued by the Danish government, she has lost weight, above right in Syria last year and above left as a student before her Syria trips

Dangerous game: When asked why she returned to Manbijj, Syria, in defiance of a travel ban, she told MailOnline: 'I had trained the female fighters, they got injured and they got killed, the fighters I had trained the year before. But no one knew they had died for freedom.' Pictured: Joanna Palani in Iraq with the Iraqi Peshmerga

'I AM NOT CRIMINAL': FACING JAIL FOR FIGHTING ISIS Joanna was taken into custody in Copenhagen last December after she flew abroad in defiance of a travel ban. The move to jail her for fighting against Isis prompted accusations of hypocrisy in Denmark - because of the way the liberal nation treats returning jihadis who have fought with Isis. It runs a rehabilitation programme for returning Isis 'soldiers. A 12-month travel ban was imposed on Joanna to prevent her from travelling back to the conflict in September 2015, but in a closed court hearing in December she admitted travelling as far as Doha, Qatar, on 6 June this year and was taken into custody. She has now told MailOnline she travelled to Syria. She is now facing a new court hearing and the prospect of jail. Joanna's lawyer, Erbil Kaya, said: 'It's a shame. We are the first country in the world to punish a person who has been fighting on the same side as the international coalition. It's hypocritical to punish her.' Advertisement

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline the sniper told how she feels hunted by the Danish authorities while also living under the shadow of an Isis $1m 'kill or capture' bounty.

Forced to move from location to location every three days, she says she is struggling financially and lacking all home comforts.

'I am freezing cold every night and I go to bed hungry.

'The Danish government is trying to set an example of me in court so they can say publicly that I am just the same as ISIS, but I am not a criminal.

'I would take ten years in jail with pride to save people but I wouldn't accept one day in jail for being a danger to Denmark. I don't understand why they [the Danish intelligence service] would view me as a threat when I was fighting for Europe and for females everywhere.'

Joanna was arrested on December 7th last year by Denmark's PET intelligence service under tough new anti-terrorism legislation intended to stop citizens taking part in the devastating conflict in Syria and Iraq.

She was held in prison for three weeks before being released on the orders of a judge before Christmas on December 23.

But while she was in jail she learned of a threat from another angle. Joanna was told that ISIS had now put a $1 million-bounty on her head.

Looking tired but defiant, Joanna says: 'ISIS want to kill me, and capture me to convert me into a radical Islamist or turn me into a sex slave.

'But I love my independence and freedom as a woman more than I fear being captured or turned into a sex slave by ISIS or for ISIS. My worries about being captured and killed are not as great as my love of freedom. That is what keeps me going.

'My response is to keep moving, to keep going to class, to keep working. I will keep trying to show them that I am a liberated and independent woman. This is how I will defeat them.'

Defiant: Danish authorities issued Joanna with a travel ban in September 2015, but in June last year she returned to northern Iraq. She told MailOnline: 'Something happened inside me that made me go [back to Syria]'

Alone: While in Syria for the third time, Joanna spent nine days at a time on the frontline taking aim at Isis fighters. She revealed: 'You have to be very patient. You have to be very calm. And you have to focus. You cannot lose concentration for one moment. You are covered in blankets and camouflage.You have to remember to bring a bag for hygiene because you never know how long you will have to wait.'

Heroine: Joanna is unusually candid about realising her teenage ambition to follow in the tradition of other female snipers. 'I like using my brain and my body to focus on the mission. I loved my training.'

On the run: Since returning from Syria last year Joanna has felt hunted by Isis and persecuted by the Danish authorities. She is effectively homeless and and moves every three days to ensure her safety. Pictured above left before her trips to Syria, and above right in Copenhagen last week

Haven: Joanna bitterly resents the level of support offered to returning ISIS fighters by the Danish state, as she believes it makes the country a more attractive destination to those instructed to attack Europe. 'I would take ten years in jail with pride to save people but I wouldn't accept one day in jail for being a danger to Denmark.' Pictured: Joanna in Syria where she spent 12 months on her first trip

'ISIS WANTS TO KILL ME BUT I REFUSE TO GIVE THEM MY FEAR' Joanna bitterly resents the 'liberal' policy that means Denmark offers rehabilitation to the people she believes are trying to kill her. It has the highest rate of returning ISIS fighters in Europe, with 135 warriors currently fighting for ISIS according to the latest study made by International Centre for Counter Terrorism (ICCT). ICCT estimates that 50% of the jihadis then returning to Denmark. Denmark's second city of Aarhus runs a mentoring programme where youth workers and psychologists work with young men who have fled Isis. But the approach has been criticised as 'soft' within Denmark, where more than 100 young jihadists have been discovered since 2012, which is more fighters per head of its population than any other western European country bar Belgium. A study published by the Danish paper Ekstrabladet in December last year said a total of 36 people who left Denmark to participate in the brutal and bloody conflict in Syria continued to receive cash from their municipality or received unemployment benefits whilst fighting. Advertisement

But she says she has also been targeted in the street, and even warned she could be captured by Isis and abused.

Sitting in a closed room at a secret location in the heart of Copenhagen, she told MailOnline: 'I was threatened in the street last month by a Danish Muslim convert who I know has fought in Syria and last year I was attacked by four Islamist men.

'There's a $1 million reward on my head. It is possible for me to be captured and killed in these circumstances that I find myself in here in Denmark.'

The 23-year-old is keen to stay 'on message' with her YPG battalion, and refuses to accept she has reason to be scared.

'I will never give them the victory of my fear. When we were preparing to liberate houses of ISIS sex slaves, we had this saying - one fighter goes to rescue but many fighters will come back out.

'That is because the survivors often join us. Many of the girls we rescue join us and train to become fighters. So if they captured me, I would still fight them, for all of those girls as well as for myself. I will never submit, or let them win.'

It was as the battle for the strategically important town of Manbij, north-east of Aleppo, raged last summer that Joanna felt compelled to re-join her YPG, People's Protection Unit, a brigade battling to break ISIS' grip on northern Syria.

'I was wanting to be back with my girls in Syria, as we were going to be going more forward and by that stage Special Forces had joined us on the ground so I knew it would be better. I wanted to be there.

'It's not so easy for me to be in Denmark when my friends are in Rojava and girls I had trained, who were younger than me, were in Manbij and I was not. I felt ashamed and guilty that I was not there.

'They were trying to say there were no women in Manbij, but I knew they were there and that they were fighting forward.'

So on 6 June last year - still in possession of her passport despite the travel ban - she calmly flew back to northern Iraq. She walked for seven hours through the night to cross the border into northern Syria, where she was then driven to the front-line to be reunited with the young women she had trained to fight.

'Something happened inside me that made me go [back to Syria],' Joanna explained to MailOnline.

'At that time in my life it was so much easier to be there [in Syria].

'I had trained the female fighters, they got injured and they got killed, the fighters I had trained the year before. But no one knew they had died for freedom.'

Memories: Joanna's eyes light up when she describes her experiences fighting Isis. 'At night we would get close to the enemy. We would joke that we were 'hunting'

Price to pay: But after spending many months with the YPJ Joanna is now forced to live in hiding in Denmark and fears for her safety. Isis have reportedly issued a $1m reward for her kill or capture and she is fearful of going to prison for revealing her role fighting the vicious terror group.

Lonely: Forced to live in a different location every three days, Joanna has slowly become estranged from her family and is facing ten years in jail for breaking the travel ban imposed on her by Danish authorities. She says she felt compelled to return to Syria to fight with the women she had trained

'IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LADY DEATH' - THE RUSSIAN RED ARMY SNIPER WHO KILLED 300 NAZIS Best female sniper: Lyudmila Pavlichenko Joanna says her idol as a young teenager was Lyudmila Pavlichenko , the female sniper from the Russian Red Army dubbed 'Lady Death'. Trained as a sharpshooter and sent to fight on the frontline in 1941, aged 25, Pavlichenko was said to have killed 309 Nazis in less than a year during battles in Odessa and the strategic city of Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. She is regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time and the most successful female sniper in history, according to Time magazine. It is said she once lambasted a fellow sniper for firing a shot than ended the agony of a dying Nazi, saying: 'They don't deserve an easy death.' Pavlichenko was evacuated from Sevastopol after getting injured, soon before the Nazis captured the strategic city in 1942. Sensing her propaganda value, the Soviet Union then sent her to tour Canada and the United States, where she called for the opening of a new front in the war. Dressed in an army tunic and cap, she became an object of fascination, nicknamed 'Lady Death' by journalists. She met American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and was invited to stay at the White House as a personal guest. The women stayed in touch and Roosevelt met her again years later in Moscow. Advertisement

Over several hours, this idealistic young woman told MailOnline how she fears for her life from the dozens of foreign fighters who have sought sanctuary in Denmark after fleeing ISIS.

The progressive Scandinavian country has the highest rate of returning jihadis in Europe, according to the International Centre for Counter Terrorism (ICC), due to their benevolent de-radicalisation programme.

Joanna bitterly resents the level of support offered to returning ISIS fighters by the Danish state, as she believes it makes the country a more attractive destination to those instructed to kill her.

An ISIS sniper from Saudi Arabia is 'after her' following news articles about her military exploits, she claims. The threat from this sniper made her commander send her to Manbij instead of towards Raqqa, where this Saudi sniper for ISIS is said to be located.

Although apparently an acclaimed marksman Joanna refuses to discuss how many 'kills' she has achieved – insisting there is no honour in crowing about taking someone else's life. But she admits that as a teenager she idolised the female World War 2 Red Army sniper known as the Lady of Death - who shot over 309 Nazis.

'I am a sniper,' Joanna told MailOnline proudly, her eyes lighting up as she recalls the excitement of a mission.

'I like using my brain and my body to focus on the mission. I loved my training. It was like Lyudmila [Pavlichenko] the Lady Death from the Russian Red Army.'

Joanna's YPG battalion claim she has killed 100 ISIS fanatics in morale-boosting propaganda.

Describing the intensity of a sniper's skills she added: 'You have to be very patient. You have to be very calm. And you have to focus. You cannot lose concentration for one moment. You are covered in blankets and camouflage. I use a Russian SVD Dragunov sniper rifle.'

On the front-line at Manbij she spent days in the same position, apparently defending civilians fleeing the conflict zone, Kurdish comrades as they advanced and shooting ISIS fighters dead at night.

'As a sniper I could be on the front line for nine days at a time,' Joanna told MailOnline.

'I would get up at 4-5am and get my SVD rifle and AK rifle my bag and two hand grenades.

'I would take up a position away from the window, find a space where it would be comfortable, lay down with only my finger on the trigger.

'I would have a headscarf over my head to cover my blonde hair and blankets over me. You have to remember to bring a bag for hygiene because you never know how long you will have to wait.

'In the daylight we defend, at night hunt and shoot.

'At night we would get close to the enemy. We would say we were 'hunting', going after ISIS, using our thermal scopes.'

Frightened: Joanna cannot understand why she is facing while people who have fought with Isis are rehabilitated. Describing her current plight, she says: 'I live in one of the best countries in the world but I am hungry and homeless and freezing cold in bed at night, even though I am working full time.. I don't trust anyone' since the law also has affected my social life. I just started to work again, but my bills from the court has been very harsh for me.'

However she only escaped death by inches when an ISIS fighter locked his sight on her during her last tour of Syria.

A friend bringing her a cup of tea took the bullet intended for Joanna. His dying body sent her falling through the derelict building on the front line where she had been hiding.

She fell almost ten feet, fracturing her skull.

'I took up a gun again after four days,' she told MailOnline matter-of-factly.

I live in one of the best countries in the world but I am hungry and homeless and freezing cold in bed at night, even though I am working full time. I don't trust anyone. Joanna Palani

Now back in Denmark Joanna is constantly concerned about her security and never spends more than three nights in one place.

She says she was offered protection by Denmark's PET intelligence service after ISIS put the $1 million bounty on her head, but says she refused because the agency is trying to lock her up under terror laws, and she does not trust them.

Now she sleeps on friends' sofas, in shops and store-rooms, takes showers at friends' homes, relies on charities for clothes and struggles financially.

'I have given up some many things for greater justice in the Middle East and Denmark,' Joanna told MailOnline.

'I live in one of the best countries in the world but I am hungry and homeless and freezing cold in bed at night, even though I am working full time. I don't trust anyone.

'But it was all worth it.

'A look from a little girl after we have helped liberate her and her family from ISIS, those are the experiences but make it all worthwhile.'

Stunning: Facebook pictures of Joanna Palani show how the toll of fighting abroad then facing a court ordeal at home has affected the smiley, happy student, who moved to Denmark with her family when she was three

Plea: A thin and exhausted Joanna posted a video from jail when she was held initially over breaching her travel ban, top left, a complete contrast with the smiling, groomed student who posted selfies on her Facebook page, top right

Committed: Joanna was still a teenager when she dropped out of college where she was studying politics, philosophy and biology, she went to Syria to join the uprising. 'I could see the uprising in Syria was much more complicated than elsewhere in the Middle East,' she told MailOnline. Pictured: Joanna in Iraq in 2015

'STANDING IN FRONT OF DEATH': BORN IN REFUGEE CAMP INTO PESHMERGA FAMILY Born at a United Nations refugee camp in Ramadi, in the scorching deserts of Iraq in 1993, Joanna was the second daughter of a Kurdish family who had fled their home in Kermanshah in mountains of western Iran following the 1979 Islamic revolution. They found themselves on the wrong side of Ayatollah's Khomeini's regime for religious and political reasons. Her father, grandfather and uncles were members of the famed Kurdish army of fighters known as the Peshmerga – 'one who stands in front of death'. Iran's Revolutionary Guards jailed and executed members of her family. Saddam Hussein's forces killed other relatives in the murderous chemical gas attack on Halabja, Iraq. Among Joanna's earliest memories are digging for water in sun-baked desert ground and her brothers and sisters walking to school in single file to avoid landmines. She remembers seeing the child's body split in half in a mortar bomb attack on the refugee camp. When she was three years old the Palani family offered given asylum in Denmark. 'We got a plane to Denmark,' Joanna told MailOnline. 'I remember sitting next to the window and eating yoghurt. 'Suddenly I was above the refugee camp and I was in a plane going to Europe. 'I was with mum, dad, two big brothers, one big sister and one little sister. I remember all the other Kurdish families. One of which I still know. 'We got in a bus and I remember my aunt crying because they were not going. 'I remember my father in his long Kurdish clothes and my mother in her Islamic clothes. 'I remember getting out of the plane and holding my big sisters hand and a big sign, saying 'Welcome'. 'My father took a picture of us outside the UN sign saying Welcome. 'This was our first picture in Denmark.' Bright and quick witted, Joanna learned Danish easily and settled into life in a small town in northern Denmark, although the family spoke Kurdish at home and kept close links with relatives back in Iraq. 'I remember growing up with one foot in Kurdistan and one foot in Denmark,' she recalls. 'My family kept their Kurdish traditions. I was not allowed to do things as my Danish friends. I was not allowed to have boyfriends, or have any contact with boys. ' Sadly, she has slowly become estranged from her parents who accused her of being 'too Danish, too western'. 'My parents took their Kurdish traditions with us when we moved, and they were always telling me to stop acting like a boy and to behave like a traditional Muslim Kurdish female.' Advertisement

Fit and adventurous, Joanna loved the outdoors as a child and first picked up a rifle aged nine, at a shooting range, while on holiday in Finland.

'I remember pulling the trigger and feeling the power,' she told MailOnline.

'I wasn't any good, but I liked it a lot. I loved it in fact. I liked the power in the weapon, and the fact that the power was not even within the weapon, but in the person behind the weapon. I wanted to get better.'

She explained: 'After we came home from Finland, I begged my dad to let me begin shooting. I said; 'Baba, Baba [father, father] I want to be like you and train to be a Peshmerga fighter.'

Joanna continued to spend time with her relatives in Kurdistan, where she would spend her summer holidays from high school in Copenhagen.

So when still a teenager the winds of the Arab spring began blowing Syria Joanna was ready, she says.

Dropping out of college where she was studying politics, philosophy and biology, she went to Syria to join the uprising.

'I could see the uprising in Syria was much more complicated than elsewhere in the Middle East,' she told MailOnline.

'Millions of people were fighting for democracy I wanted to be part of it. I was 17 or 18 when I first went to see it. The females battalion wasn't created back then - that came later.

After first taking up arms against the Assad regime in Aleppo Joanna began a series of trips to Syria – increasingly turning her fire on ISIS as they mounted their rapid charge across the region.

She says she fought the fanatics at Kobane, liberated Yazidi girls imprisoned as sex slaves and switched units to fight ISIS in Iraq.

Her military career came to the attention of the Danish authorities and in September 2015, soon after she returned to Denmark on 'leave', a court issued her with a travel ban preventing her from going abroad created to stop Danes joining terror groups.

Her case also attracted a lot of attention on social media.

The stress of fighting in Syria's seemingly endless conflict has certainly taken its toll. Joanna says she suffers from frequent and debilitating headaches, has lost a lot of weight and cannot sleep, she told MailOnline. She is exhausted and her clothes are donated from a local church where she sometimes sleeps.

Estranged from her family, Joanna is effectively homeless. She told MailOnline: 'I am not looking for sympathy. I want people to understand that I don't want a thank you note [for fighting ISIS].

'I am sorry for breaking the law but I had no choice in my mind at the time. Those I risked my life for, are now taking away my freedom. I did not expect to lose almost everything for fighting for our freedom and our safety.'