Tomasa Pérez Molleja

Tomasa Pérez Molleja (1976–2019) was a Spanish woman who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014, taking her children with her. In 2022, her death was confirmed; she had died in Baghuz in 2019.[1]

Life before ISIL

Tomasa Pérez Molleja was born in Malaga to a Catholic family. She was raised in Córdoba and got excellent grades in school. At 16 or 17 years of age, she met Abdelah Ahram, a Moroccan a year older than herself.[2][3] She was in her third year of high school and dropped out soon after meeting him, months before she would have taken university entrance exams.[3][4] She converted to Islam, and shortly afterwards she and Ahram married, which gave him Spanish citizenship. She had their first child at age 19, in 1995, and another in 1996. She and Ahram would have six children altogether.[3]

Her mother stated she would accompany Pérez to medical checkups during Pérez's first two pregnancies, and also supported her when she had a miscarriage. But Pérez stopped contacting her parents after the birth of her first two children. They never heard from her again.[3]

After their second child was born, the family moved to Alcolea. Later, they moved to Barcelona. The family's neighbors in the early 2000s said Pérez wore a hijab, and that the family did not socialize, although the children did attend school.[4][5] Ahram worked nights, and Pérez was a stay-at-home mother.[6] In 2003, the family moved to Sweden, but they were denied a residency permit, so moved to Morocco.[3]

Authorities believe Pérez was radicalized by her husband.[1] In 2006, Ahram was arrested with his two brothers for belonging to a terrorist group in Morocco. He was released in 2008, and he and his family went to Ceuta. In 2009, when Ahram went back to Morocco, he was convicted of another terrorism charge; court documents indicate he "encouraged suicide operations and the execution of hostages held by Al-Qaeda". He was sentenced to ten years in prison.[3]

ISIL

In 2014, from prison, Ahram urged her to travel to Syria to join the ISIL caliphate. Ahram's two brothers were already there.[1] Pérez sent her oldest sons, Muhammad Yasin Ahram Pérez and Musa Nosair Ahram Pérez, to Syria ahead of her, then followed with their younger siblings. Pérez and the younger children arrived on December 4, 2014.[2] She was the last confirmed woman to leave Spain to join the Syrian jihad.[3]

Pérez published a letter online defending her decision, saying that in Spain, "I was never allowed to practice my religion freely. I never considered myself Spanish and I never will be; Muslims don't recognize nationality. Both my passport and those of my children have been cut up and burned." She also stated,

"I find it astonishing that they say I am taking my children to a country where beheadings occur. Apparently, these heads offend your sensibilities. It is even more astonishing how you turn a blind eye to the image of mutilated and dead children... This seems natural to you. Where are your human rights and your defense of women and children? ... they are portraying my 15-year-old son as a terrorist and accusing me of selling my 11-year-old daughter. Stop lying about my family; my children are being raised according to the teachings of the Prophet and the Quran. Don't feel sorry for them; when your sons die of overdoses and your daughters are raped after snorting cocaine, they are the ones who truly deserve pity."[7]

In Syria, Yasin took the nom de guerre Abu Lais Al Qurdubi.[8] He was wounded in the summer of 2016, required two surgeries and was in a wheelchair, then on crutches.[9] Yasin appeared on an ISIL propaganda video, speaking in Spanish and saying, "Allah willing, Al Andalus will become once again what it was, part of the caliphate."[1][4] Before Yasin's appearance in this video, his grandparents in Spain had had no idea where he was.[3]

Once in Syria, according to her son Alejandro Ahram Pérez, the children did not attend school. Instead, their mother taught them math and Arabic at home. Pérez reportedly recruited other women to ISIL.[9] Alejandro, who was eight years old when he arrived in the ISIL territory, said his brother Musa was killed in 2016 while fighting Bashar al-Assad's troops in the Aleppo area. Yasin, he said, died in Baghuz at the age of 24, and their mother also died in Baghuz after being severely injured in a bombing.[2]

When Alejandro and his three surviving siblings tried to escape Baghuz after burying their mother, they were shot at, he was injured and his older sister was killed. Alejandro and his two younger brothers were taken to the Al-Hawl refugee camp. When interviewed by El País in 2025, he said he wanted to return to Spain to live with his grandparents.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Escrivá, Ángeles (2022-11-28). "La difunta Tomasa y la tragedia de toda la prole que se llevó al 'Califato'". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  2. ^ a b c d Sancha, Natalia (2025-03-14). "Siete españoles en el limbo de los 50.000 yihadistas y familiares custodiados por las fuerzas kurdas en Siria". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Mucha, Martín; Caravaca, Toñi (2014-12-21). "Y Tomasa se fue a la guerra (con sus seis hijos)". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  4. ^ a b c Martín-Arroyo, Javier (2017-08-25). "El Cordobés, the Spanish face of Islamic State". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  5. ^ Méndez, Rafael (2017-08-25). "El yihadista Yassin, hijo de la Tomasa: de no salir a jugar a la calle a amenazar a España". elconfidencial.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  6. ^ Mucha, Martín; Alba, Alfonso (2017-08-25). "El abuelo español del yihadista 'el Cordobés': "No nos podemos creer en qué se ha convertido nuestro nieto"". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  7. ^ Ruiz Coll, M.A. (2017-08-24). "Tomasa Pérez Mollejas, la madre del yihadista español: "Vuestros hijos mueren de sobredosis y vuestras hijas son violadas"". okdiario.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  8. ^ "Abu Lais "el Cordobés", el joven yihadista andaluz que amenaza en video a España en nombre del autodenominado Estado Islámico". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
  9. ^ a b Escritá, Ángeles (2018-02-18). "Las semillas del mal de Tomasa... y el destino final de los 240 españoles que se incorporaron al IS". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-01-08.
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