By Bethan McKernan Beirut
Isis has reportedly offered a $1 million reward for the killing of a Kurdish-Danish woman who dropped out of university in 2014 to fight the extremist group in Syria and Iraq.
Joanna Palani, 23, is currently behind bars and facing trial in Copenhagen for leaving the country after a 12-month travel ban imposed in June 2015.
Ironically, if found guilty she faces up to two years in prison under the new laws designed to stem the flow of Isis fighters from Denmark to the Middle East.
“How can I pose a threat to Denmark and other countries by being a soldier in an official army that Denmark trains and supports directly in the fight against [Isis]?” she posted on Facebook shortly after her passport was confiscated.
Ms Palani’s high profile means she is often the subject of vicious threats both on and offline. The latest offerings of financial reward for her death were made by Isis social media channels in several different languages over the weekend, al-Arabiya reported.
Ms Palani, whose family originate from Iranian Kurdistan, was born in a refugee camp in Ramadi in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Her family won asylum in Denmark when she was a child.
She quit a politics degree to join the Kurdish revolution against Isis after the extremists rose to prominence in 2014, fighting with both the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria and Peshmerga forces in Iraq. In a Facebook post, Ms Palani said she was inspired “to fight for women’s rights, for democracy – for the European values I learned as a Danish girl.”
Her trial begins December 20, Danish media reports.
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