Two of the three east London schoolgirls who fled to join Islamic State in Syria have married men approved for them by the terrorist group, their families have told the Guardian.
Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, fled in February from Britain after deceiving their parents and siblings.
Two of the teenagers have been allowed to tell their families that they have been married and are living in the war-torn country. One phoned and another used a social media platform to tell the loved ones the news that they have been dreading.
Their families are said be be distraught at the news and have been clinging to the hope their daughters will want to come home.
The schoolgirls also say that they have been separated and for several weeks have been living apart, in and around Raqqa, Syria – an Isis stronghold.
The two schoolgirls have been living with the men whom they married in a ceremony approved by Isis authorities.
The two schoolgirls are understood to have been given an effective “catalogue” of men deemed suitable by Isis for marriage. They then made their picks from those presented to them. The teenagers who married are believed to have been wed to older men, in their 20s.
Tasnime Akunjee, a solicitor representing the families, said the families were grieving at the news of the marriages, as told to them by their daughters: “It has caused a lot of distress. It entrenches that their lives in Syria, rather than in Britain.
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