Ahlam al-Nasr

Ahlam al-Nasr (Arabic: أحلام النصر) is a Syrian Arabic poet, and known as "the Poetess of the Islamic State".[1] Her first book of poetry, The Blaze of Truth, was published in 2014 and consists of 107 poems written in monorhyme.[1] She is considered one of the Islamic State's most famous propagandists and gives detailed defenses of terrorist acts.[2] Ahlam Al-Nasr is a nom de guerre meaning "dreams of victory" or "triumph" in Arabic.[3] Her birth name may have been Shaima al-Haddad.[4][5]

History

Al-Nasr became known for her poems about the Syrian revolution in 2011 and early 2012.[3] She was raised in Saudi Arabia where she attended a private school in al-Khobar.[3] She is from Damascus. Her family fled to Kuwait shortly after the Syrian Civil War began[6], but Al-Nasr returned to Syria in 2014.[1][4] She was accompanied by her 14-year-old sister and her 13-year-old brother.[3] Al-Nasr is believed to have been 15 years old at the time[3] although some reports claim she was older.[1]

On October 11, 2014, Al-Nasr was married in the courthouse of Raqqa, Syria to Mohamed Mahmoud, known as Abu Usama al-Gharib, an Austrian Vienna-born preacher.[4][7]

According to Cole Bunzel, a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, many of her poems were published weekly by the al-Sumud Media Foundation.[8] In November 2020, he reported she was still alive and had released a new poem celebrating the terrorist attack in Vienna.[9]

Family

Al-Nasr is the granddaughter of a Syrian imam. Her father is a pharmacist and reputed hafiz.[5] Her mother is Iman Mustafa al-Bugha, who was a university professor of fiqh at the University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia.[3] Al-Bugha encouraged her daughter to learn poetry from an early age[3] and said she was "born with a dictionary in her mouth."[1] Al-Bugha joined her daughter in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant territory, and published a six-page pamphlet describing herself as "a Daeshite before Daesh existed".[3] Public statements released by ISIL referred to Al-Bugha as "a scholarly torch [that] supports the Islamic Caliphate."[10]

Al-Nasr has two younger siblings who traveled to Syria with her. Her brother became an Islamic State fighter and was killed in June 2016.[11] Her sister married an Islamic State fighter.[12][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Bernard Haykel; Robyn Creswell (June 2015). "Battle Lines". The New Yorker. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  2. ^ Nina Easton (5 May 2015). "How ISIS is recruiting women—and turning them into brutal enforcers". Fortune. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Diyab, Halla (March 6, 2019). "Ahlam al-Nasr: Islamic State's Jihadist Poetess". Militant Leadership Monitor (Quarterly Special Report).
  4. ^ a b c "Ahlam Al-Nasr – Preachers of Hate". Preachers of Hate. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
  5. ^ a b https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2710450/view
  6. ^ Ahmad, Tarek (December 15, 2019). "Ahlam Al-Nasr: Daesh poet of poison". Arab News. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  7. ^ Weinthal, Benjamin (11 November 2014). "Radical Islam in Austria is active and growing". The Local. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  8. ^ al-Sham, Diluting Jihad: Tahrir; says, the Concerns of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi jihadica. ""Come Back to Twitter": A Jihadi Warning Against Telegram". www.jihadica.com.
  9. ^ https://x.com/colebunzel/status/1326323203245961216
  10. ^ Diyab, Halla (November 1, 2016). "From University Professor to the Islamic State's Chief of Public Education: A Profile of Dr. Iman Mustafa Al-Bugha". Militant Leadership Monitor. 7 (10).
  11. ^ Al-Saleh, Huda (June 19, 2016). "This is how ISIS's "scholar" Iman al-Bagha described her child". Al Arabiya. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
  12. ^ Diyab, Halla (30 June 2015). "Ahlam al-Nasr: Islamic State's Jihadist Poetess". Jamestown.org. Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  13. ^ Mazel, Zvi (24 December 2014). "Dream or nightmare: The caliphate in the eyes of Islam". JPost. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
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