Halima Salman, a New Yorker who was 18 when she married an ISIS fighter in Syria, is now on trial in federal court in Brooklyn as the first woman accused of belonging to the terror group to face a full U.S. trial.
Prosecutors have argued that Salman is an ISIS-trained fighter who handled an AK-47 and received military instruction from a female battalion.
Salman has testified that her father forced the family into ISIS territory and arranged the marriage against her will.
Born in Brooklyn in 1999 to an American mother and a Turkish father, Salman, now 27, was brought along with her eight siblings into Syria in 2016. She was 17 at the time.
After she turned 18, she married an ISIS member known as Abu Ali, an Afghan-German fighter.
Prosecutors say his family paid a $5,000 dowry and that the wedding took place in front of an ISIS flag.
Salman has claimed the ceremony was held in a dingy room that looked like a garage and that she was scared.
“I was scared. I had a very bad feeling about it. I was wondering if this was what was supposed to happen to me. My heart was burning,” Salman testified.
During the trial, jurors saw cellphone video of Salman holding and walking with an AK-47 inside her husband’s home in Syria while saying, “You have to walk like…” before asking if he was filming.
Prosecutors say she received training from Nusaybah Katiba, an all-female ISIS unit made up mainly of fighters’ wives. They also introduced a handwritten document recovered from her husband’s phone that purportedly certified she was qualified to carry a Kalashnikov and ammunition.
Defense lawyers have questioned the document’s authenticity and argued the government has not shown exactly what training she received.
A selfie of Salman in front of an ISIS flag was also shown.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Shami told the jury during closing arguments that “the evidence shows that the defendant received training from a violent, brutal, terrorist organization.”
Shami added that the video indicated it was “not her first time with a weapon.”
Salman took the stand and claimed that she does not support ISIS.
“I believe that ISIS did very scary things which deceive the way Islam is visioned,” she testified, according to the New York Daily News.
She described being forced to change from a blue hijab to a black one and a veil, living under strict rules, and spending two years in ISIS territory followed by five years in a Kurdish-run detention camp after the group’s collapse.
Salman’s father was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2018.
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Salman was arrested at JFK Airport in 2024 after she and other family members were repatriated from Syria by the State Department.
The alleged terrorist is free on a $500,000 bond and has been living with relatives in New Hampshire.
If convicted, Salman faces a maximum of 10 years for knowingly receiving military training from a terrorist organization.
Her mother, Brandy, an Arkansas native, has attended the trial.
No other family members face charges.
Her ex-husband is believed to be in an Iraqi jail.
The trial began earlier this month, and prosecutors have rested their case.
Defense closing statements are scheduled for Thursday.
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