Fatiha Mejjati

Fatiha Mejjati
فتيحة المجاطي
Born
Fatiha Mohamed Taher Hassani

1961 (age 64–65)
Casablanca, Morocco
Other namesLa Veuve Noire
Oum Adam

Fatiha Mohamed Taher Mejjati (née Hassani; born 1961 (1961)) is a Moroccan jihadist.[1] She is the widow of Karim Mejjati, a co-founder of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and a member of Al-Qaeda.[2][3] Karim Mejjati is suspected of involvement in planning the 2003 Casablanca bombings and the 2004 Madrid train bombings.[4][5]

Mejjati is believed to be living in Syria.[6] In 2023, she was designated a terrorist by the Moroccan Ministry of Justice, and an arrest warrant was issued against her in connection with alleged terrorist activities.[7]

Biography

Fatiha Mohamed Taher Hassani was born in 1961 in Derb Sultan, Casablanca, to a father who worked as a carpenter and a mother who was a housewife.[8][9] She grew up in a middle-class family with five sisters and a brother.[1][9] Her family practiced moderate Islam during her childhood.[10]

Hassani received a Baccalauréat in Literature and Human Sciences in 1980 and earned a degree in French private law from Hassan II University of Casablanca in 1985.[9][11]

In 1990, she joined the Moroccan Institute of Management as a management assistant.[9][12] According to her own later accounts, Hassani's religious radicalization began in 1991, influenced by the Gulf War. She stated that during this period, she "found happiness only in the mosque" and began wearing the hijab permanently.[13] She was not permitted to wear a hijab at her workplace, which led to tensions with her employer.[9][10][14] Students at the institute circulated a petition in her support, which was signed by Karim Mejjati.[11][15] Hassani later gave Mejjati, who reportedly had limited knowledge of Arabic at the time, a French translation of the Quran.[9][15] The two married in September 1991, less than a year later, without the knowledge of Mejjati’s parents.[9][10][13]

The couple subsequently moved to France.[13] In 1992, Mejjati traveled to Bosnia to fight as a combatant associated with al-Qaeda, a decision attributed in part to his radicalization during the preceding period.[10] He later returned to France in an attempt to bring his family back to Bosnia, however, Hassani was denied a visa. When Mejjati attempted to return to Bosnia alone, he was arrested by the Croatian Army and detained for nearly a month. Following his release, he was banned from the region for five years.[13]

The Mejjatis had two sons, Adam and Ilyas. According to the Morocco World News, Mejjati was a founder of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which the outlet reported had pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.[16] In July 2001, the family of four moved to Afghanistan.[10][17] Hassani later stated that her time in Afghanistan under Taliban rule was "the most wonderful period" of her life.[18] The family subsequently relocated to Pakistan.[10]

In 2003, Mejjati reportedly travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he was said to have served as an Al-Qaeda agent.[10] He has also been alleged to have played a role in planned the May 2003 Casablanca bombings.[19]

On 25 March 2003, Hassani was arrested in Riyadh along with her son Ilyas, who was then ten years old. Both were detained and questioned by Saudi authorities regarding Mejjati’s whereabouts. Hassani acknowledged that her husband was in Riyadh, but refused a request by the authorities to write an open letter urging him to surrender.[20] She and her son were held in Saudi Arabia until June 20 2003,[20] after which they were transferred to Morocco, where they remained in detention until March 17 2004.[1][13][18]

Mejjati was later reported to have played a planning role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings[19] and the 2005 London bombings.[10] In April 2005, he and his son Adam were killed during a gunfight with Saudi security forces in Ar-Rass.[18][10] Adam was eleven years old at the time of his death.[20] In a May 2005 interview with the Gazette of Morocco, Hassani stated that her husband was not a terrorist, describing him instead as "a Mujahid who went to Bosnia and Afghanistan to fight the enemies of Islam and bring justice to Muslims."[20]

In 2008, France 24 interviewed Hassani and published a profile following her public warning that France could face jihadist attacks.[1] In the interview, she denied having any ties with al Qaeda and stated that she was not aware any specific plans to attack France. She explained that her warning was based on her perception that, despite France having opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it had subsequently adopted policies she viewed as hostile toward the Muslim world.[1]

Sometime after the death of her first husband, Hassani married Omar al-Omrani Hadi, a Salafi-jihadist activist who had been sentenced by the Moroccan authoritied to 14 years in prison on terrorism-related charges. The couple never met in person, and Moroccan authorities did not recognize the marriage or permit Hassani to visit him in prison, citing the absence of a civil marriage contract. Hassani protested outside the prison where al-Omrani Hadi was held, calling for his release, and also publicly advocated for the rights of other detainees in Moroccan prisons.[10]

On June 29, 2014, Hassani posted a message on Twitter declaring her allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.[21] On July 5, she arrived in Raqqa, then the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). She later posted a photograph of herself posing in front of a court building in Jarabalus, a town on the Syrian-Turkish border that was under ISIL control at the time.[10] In November 2014, Jeune Afrique reported that Hassani had married a senior ISIL figure, described as an aide to al-Baghdadi.[10][22]

Her surviving son, Ilyas Mejjat, was reported to have worked for ISIL's media apparatus.[23] He was married to a Swedish woman.[18] ISIL-affiliated social media accounts reportedly publicized Hassani's arrival in Syria, referring to her as the "mother of believers."[10]

After relocating to territory controlled by ISIL Hassani assumed leadership of the Al-Khansaa Brigade, an all-woman unit responsible for enforcing ISIL's interpretation of female modesty and dress codes.[24] She also became a member of ISIL's media committee and was described by sources as one of the most influential women within the organization.[10]

Following the collapse of ISIL's self-proclaimed caliphate in 2019, Hassani's Swedish daughter-in-law and three grandchildren were captured after the Battle of Baguz Fawqani.[25] Hassani herself was subsequently detained at the Al-Hawl refugee camp. In 2020, she reportedly escaped from the camp and was believed to be sheltering in Idlib, along with more than a dozen other women who had also escaped from Al-Hawl.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Al Qaeda's 'black widow' issues a warning". France 24. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  2. ^ D., J.-M. (2008-01-20). "Une « femme libérée » qui deviendra l'égérie de l'islamisme". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  3. ^ Barrada, Hamid. "Du lycée Lyautey à al-Qaïda". Jeune Afrique (in French). Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  4. ^ Pechberty, Matthieu. "Terrorisme: La menace s'accroît". Le Journal du Dimanche (in French). Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  5. ^ Taguieff, Pierre-André. (2008). La judéophobie des Modernes : des Lumières au jihad mondial. Paris: Jacob. ISBN 978-2-7381-1736-6. OCLC 247837353.
  6. ^ "« Elle a mis son intelligence au service du mal » : enquête sur la femme la plus redoutée de Daech, aujourd'hui en fuite". Middle East Eye (in French). Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  7. ^ "Mise à jour de la liste des inscriptions personnes physiques et entités sur la liste locale" (PDF). CNASU.
  8. ^ "Le combat d'une veuve de terroriste". Maroc Hebdo. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g "Dans l'intimité de Fatiha Mejjati". Maroc Hebdo. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Halla, Diyab (October 31, 2015). "Umm Adam: The Architect Behind the Islamic State's Matchmaking Network". The Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  11. ^ a b "عائلة المجاطي.. قصة تستحق أن تروى". اليوم 24 (in Arabic). Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  12. ^ "كتاب «رحلتي مع المجاطي: من إمارة الملالي إلى خلافة البغدادي» للصحافي مصطفى الحسناوي". AL ITIHAD. 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  13. ^ a b c d e "Abdelkrim El Mejjati raconté par sa femme". Maghress. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  14. ^ Aida Alami (2010-04-09). "Morocco's Misguided War on Terror". Foreign Policy magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-06-08. Retrieved 2019-03-05. These wives, mothers, and sisters of alleged terrorists detained by the Moroccan government have come from across the country to show their support for one of their own, Fatiha Mejjati. Inside the courtroom, Mejjati is bringing a suit against the Moroccan government for wrongfully detaining her and her then-11-year-old son for nine months in 2003.
  15. ^ a b Gagnet, Michaëlle (2009-04-12), La veuve noire d'Al Qaïda, M6, Tony Comiti Productions, retrieved 2022-11-15
  16. ^ Aziz Allilou (2014-07-10). "Morocco's Fatiha Mejjati Joins ISIS". Morocco World News. Rabat, Morocco. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2019-03-05. 53 year-old Fatiha Mejjati had previously lived a normal life as a student in Casablanca. When the first Gulf war broke out in 1990, she turned to radical Islam. Soon afterwards, she met Karim Mejjati, whom she married, and they moved together to live in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.
  17. ^ Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, An Al-Qaeda Love Story: From Morocco to Bosnia to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, Via New Jersey, June 17, 2005
  18. ^ a b c d e Harley, Nicky. "Swedish police to quiz Black Widow relative as bid to capture ISIS fugitive intensifies". The National. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  19. ^ a b "Al Qaeda's 'black widow' issues a warning". France 24. 2008-01-23. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-05. While Mejjati is careful to explain she has no links with al Qaeda, the 47-year-old Moroccan widow is no stranger to the Islamist threats in Europe and is believed to have had extensive contacts in hardline Islamist circles.
  20. ^ a b c d Chmirou, Youssef (May 30, 2005). ""Mon mari n'était pas un terroriste, mais un Moujahid"". The Gazette of Morocco. Archived from the original on May 29, 2006.
  21. ^ "The Islamic State Goes After Morocco's Islamists | The Washington Institute". www.washingtoninstitute.org. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  22. ^ Tarik Ben Larbi (2014-11-24). "Islamic State: Fatiha Mejjati, the black widow" [État islamique : Fatiha Mejjati, la veuve noire]. Jeune Afrique (in French). Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-05. Un peu plus d'une semaine après son ralliement idéologique, Fatiha Mejjati posait en voile intégral devant le tribunal islamique de Jarabulus, un village syrien à la frontière avec la Turquie. Elle y a rejoint son fils Ilyas, membre de la puissante commission des médias au sein de Daesh. Reçue comme une héroïne, elle a suivi une formation militaire… et se serait mariée à un dirigeant de l'organisation.
  23. ^ Michael Pauron (2015-01-12). "Maroc : Fatiha Mejjati, la Veuve noire du jihad" [Morocco: Fatiha Mejjati, the black widow of jihad]. Jeune Afrique (in French). Archived from the original on 2018-07-31. Retrieved 2019-03-05. Son apologie du jihad, son allégeance au "calife" Baghdadi, ses menaces envers la France et son voile intégral en font une personnalité relayée et, dans une certaine mesure, influente. Surnommée Oum al-Mouminine ("la mère des croyants"), elle encadre les femmes de l'EI et se serait remariée avec l'un des responsables de l'organisation terroriste.
  24. ^ Mekhennet, Souad; Warrick, Joby (2017-11-26). "The jihadist plan to use women to launch the next incarnation of ISIS". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  25. ^ Harley, Nicky. "Four female ISIS recruits and their children to return to Sweden". The National. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
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