How a young woman became an ISIS bride — and then an informant, helping save others

S. was born in Pakistan to Somali parents and raised in Canada. She joined ISIS as a young woman and eventually escaped, becoming an informant against the group. Illustration by Hanna Barczyk for NPR hide caption

WESTERN CANADA — Outside a tall apartment building we meet a slim, smiling woman dressed in a black shirt and jeans. She invites us inside, and we sit in a conference room, where she begins to tell her story.

We're not using her real name, or her home city, fearing her past could lead to repercussions. It's a past that led her into the arms of the Islamic State and brutal fighting in Syria. And to this day, she doesn't know how she survived.

She was born in Pakistan to Somali parents and raised in Canada since the age of two. She was a teenager when her brother was shot and killed by an acquaintance who was high on drugs. She was devastated and yearned for some kind of solace, some kind of peace.

"I turned to religion and God," she says in a quiet voice. "My family comes from a Muslim background. So I started practicing my religion more. And I started to become friends with other Muslim girls my age."

S. became more devout, trading her Western clothes for a veil — a hijab — and a long dress.

"My family was picking me up from the train station, and I was attacked by a random group of people," she remembers."They sprayed me and my whole family with bear mace for no reason."

She was on the train when she noticed two men staring at her.