Emilie König is a citizen of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, who converted to Islam, and who is alleged to have served as a recruiter, once she went to live in the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

. According to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', she is one of just two women whose financial assets the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

has asked member nations to freeze due to suspected ties to terrorism. König was born in Brittany, France. Her father was a policeman. She converted to Islam, as a teenager, and started wearing a black

abaya The abaya "cloak" ( colloquially and more commonly, ar, عباية ', especially in Literary Arabic: '; plural ', '), sometimes also called an ''aba'', is a simple, loose over-garment, essentially a robe-like dress, worn by some women in par ...

and face covering. König has two children from a marriage that ended in

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

. In 2012, König was the subject of a documentary, '' Emilie König vs Ummu Tawwab'', about

French Muslims Islam in France is a minority faith. Muslims are estimated to represent around 4 to 8 percent of the nation's population and France is estimated to have the largest number of Muslims in the Western world, primarily due to migration from M ...

who wore face coverings. König traveled to Syria later in 2012, leaving her children in France. According to the ''New York Times'', she eventually became "a prominent propagandist and recruiter for the Islamic State". According to '' Valeurs Actuelles'' a man named Mohamed Achamlane had founded a group whose goal was ''"" curb Islamophobia by channeling the energy of young Muslims who may be tempted by violence"'' (''"Enrayer l’islamophobie en canalisant l’énergie de jeunes musulmans pouvant être tentés par la violence"''). However French authorities concluded his group was actually a jihadist group, and raided his home. The weapons they found, and his correspondence with Konig, were used to convict him. In late 2017, after years of fighting, the breakaway region

Raqqa Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, ...

fell to militias from

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages ...

. König, and many other followers, fell into Kurdish custody. She apologized to her family, and to France, and pleaded to be repatriated. On January 11, 2018, the ''New York Times'' profiled her, and described the difficult choices her plea for repatriation posed for policy makers in France. In November 2019 '' France TV Info'' announced that Kurdish forces planned to deport 11 French citizens back to France. They speculated over who would or wouldn't be deported, noting Konig and two other individuals had been characterized as showing signs of still being dangerously radicalized.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Emilie 1984 births Living people People from Brittany Converts to Islam French Islamists French propagandists Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant propagandists French emigrants