'Missing Jordanian woman feared to have joined Daesh'

AMMAN — Authorities are investigating the mystery surrounding the absence of a 26-year-old woman from her family home in Aqaba two months ago, according to an informed source.

The woman in question headed to Turkey on November 11 for "vague reasons", while her "very conservative" family chose to deal with her disappearance in "grave silence", said MP Mazen Dalaeen.

"The circumstances that surrounded the escape of the woman, who holds a BA in computer engineering and was the top of her class, prompted authorities to suspect that Daesh was behind her decision to leave home," Dalaeen told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, a man reached out to the MP, claiming that his fiancée has gone missing and that he received a call from her from Ankara a few days ago.

"The woman demanded that her fiancé break up with her. He tracked the phone number and it appeared that she was calling from Ankara," Dalaeen said, adding that the fiancé was not allowed to visit her for two months on the pretext that she was not doing well or too busy to meet him.

"When I confronted her brother; he seemed to be surprised that the news about her absence has spread and then admitted that she left home last November," said Dalaeen, whose 23-year-old son blew himself up in a suicide attack in Iraq’s Anbar province last year.

Further investigations revealed that the woman in question left to Turkey via the King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba, while it is still unclear if the Daesh terrorist group has anything to do with the incident.

"The girl, who belongs to a very conservative bedouin family, is religious and knows the Koran by heart, but had never exhibited extremist tendencies according to her fiancé," said Dalaeen, who has dissuaded two young Jordanian women from joining Daesh.

"We are still unsure if she joined Daesh or not, but the circumstances surrounding her escape make us believe so," he highlighted, adding that the woman's fiancé, who has been with her for three years, believes that disputes with her mother might have led her to leave.

The MP, who left to Aqaba to meet the woman's family for more details on the issue, has contacted the Jordanian embassy in Ankara and the Jordanian consul there.

"They confirmed her entry into Turkey but are still looking for her."

Officials at the Public Security Department were not available for comment on the issue despite several attempts to contact them.