Dutch woman surrendered to Peshmerga, arrives in Netherlands

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Netherlands authorities arrested the Dutch woman who surrendered to Peshmerga forces near Mosul last month.

On July 12, Laura Angela Hansen, a Dutch woman who joined the Islamic State (IS) last September surrendered to Peshmerga around the IS stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq.

After she arrived at Netherlands via Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, the Dutch police arrested her for having ties with a terrorist organization.

Dutch prosecution service announced in a statement on Monday that “the woman [Hansen] is a suspect for having joined the terrorist organizations in both Syria and Iraq and having stayed there between September 2015 and July 12, 2016.” 

Hansen “fled to the conflict zone in Syria and arrived back to Netherlands where she was arrested immediately on her arrival to Schiphol airport,” the statement read.

In an exclusive interview with Kurdistan24, Laura Angela Hansen, born in 1995 in Den Haag, Netherlands, talked about her journey to Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.

Dropping out of school before graduating from high school, Hansen converted to Islam at age 17 and, through a dating website for Muslims, met and married a Netherlands-based man of Palestinian origins.

She said her neighbors did not like her husband because of his long beard. She was forced to move but, in the new location, he was the reason neighbors had to call the police to report domestic violence. 

“We had a lot of problems. He was very aggressive and [the neighbors] called the police a lot of times. I was pregnant, so I didn't want to divorce,” Hansen told Kurdistan24.

Hansen then expressed her gratitude for the Peshmerga’s help and support in protecting her and her children.

“They [Peshmerga] took my hand, and they helped me with everything,” she said.

Hansen is the third IS defector surrendering to Peshmerga and interviewed exclusively by Kurdistan24 in the past six months.

Editing by Ava Homa