Bird of Jannah [1] (also known by the name Dr. Shams [2] or the nom de guerre Umm al-Baraa) is a woman who left Malaysia in February 2014 and traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. She was notable for her Tumblr blog, "Diary Of A Muhajirah", which described her decision to travel to Syria, and her life once she'd arrived there. [1] [2] She also had accounts on Twitter and Ask.fm. [3] Her social media posts attracted international attention. [4]
The information Bird of Jannah posted online indicates she was from Malaysia and of Indian and Pakistani heritage, [5] and was 26 years old when she arrived in Syria in February 2014. [3] She was a medical doctor and felt compelled to go to Syria to help in the civil war, due to her medical expertise. Without the knowledge of her family, she flew to Turkey and crossed the Syrian border. In an answer to a question on Ask.fm, she said her parents "were quite upset at first" about her decision "but then they are very supportive and happy." [2]
She spent the first twenty days in a town in northern Syria in a house with other women. The women were brought to Tabqah. There, a local emir found out Bird of Jannah was a doctor and sent a woman to speak to her. Through this woman, the emir offered her employment: "to work under Dawlah, and Dawlah will give me a house (to be used as a clinic) and provides all the equipment". [1]
Bird of Jannah said she declined because her Arabic was poor and she didn't feel equipped to practice as a doctor in a clinic. She said she could, however, work in primary care, diagnosing patients and referring them to the hospital. She and ISIL came to an agreement and she started working for them:
Since I lost my suitcase, Dawlah provided me with few equipment like stethoscope, sphygmomanometer, ACCU-CHEK and some medication such as broad-spectrum antibiotic.The women and kids come to my house, and all I have to do is - examine and do a diagnosis and give them the medication they need. I also give vaccination to children and pregnant-women assessment (monthly blood pressure and glucose check-ups). Umm Yusuf, Umm Salah and Umm Zayd are those who help me to translate their complaints from Syrian Fuṣḥa into pure Arabic (At this time I can speak better arabic as I learnt from books and dictionary which was given by the emir). [1]
Bird of Jannah posted on her blog that after two months in Syria, she began considering getting married, because "life without a Mahram (husband) is quite hard." [3] She married Abu al Baraa, an ISIL militant from Morocco. She said she agreed to marry the man only a few minutes after meeting him and flipping up her niqab so he could see her face. That same day, she went to an internet cafe and called her father to ask for his consent to the marriage, as he was her wali. [1]
The couple did not share a common language, and downloaded dictionary apps to their phones to be able to communicate with one another. Bird of Jannah said she fell in love with Abu al Baraa the morning after their wedding, after they prayed together.
Four days after her wedding ceremony, Bird of Jannah wrote, the husband of her friend Umm Habiba was killed in jihad, leaving Umm Habiba with two children. "We entered the house," Bird of Jannah wrote, "I saw there was almost 20 sisters. Nobody cried." [6] Umm Habiba was happy about her husband's death and had invited the guests over to celebrate because her husband had become a shahid. [2]
Eleven days after their wedding, Abu al Baraa told her he had to leave to go an operation. Bird of Jannah said her husband told her, "I’m married to Jihad before I’m married to you. Jihad is my first wife, and you’re my second. I hope you understand." [2] [3]
According to her blog posts, foreign fighters for ISIL were given free houses and did not have to pay for electricity or water, and monthly groceries were provided, as well as monthly allowances for married couples and children. She warned her female readers to join ISIL for Allah, not for marriage. [3] She indicated she would be willing to help people interested in traveling to Syria if they contacted her over WhatsApp. [7] On Twitter she said there was "no racism" in ISIL territory and "the number of mix-marriages and mix-race children are so high." [8]
She acknowledged her own husband's likely fate in the caption to one of her images: "Till Martyrdom Do Us Part." [5] In August 2014, Bird of Jannah announced she was expecting her first child and visiting a local hospital for prenatal checkups. [6] She said, "The hospital runs as usual here." She took leave from her job early in her pregnancy due to a diagosis of hyperemesis gravidarum. [1] She wrote that she texted her husband, "Promise me you will wait until our baby’s birth … Promise me that you will stay alive?" and he responded, "In sha Allah." [5]
In 2018, Ummu Atiyah Ahmad Zakuan reported in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies that Abu Baraa had been killed and Bird of Jannah had last been known to be living in ISIL's Syrian capital of Raqqa with their son, serving the community without a salary. She last had contact with her family in Malaysia in 2017, and that contact with her ceased when the area around her house was bombed. [4]