Montreal Woman Convicted of Joining ISIS in Canada’s First ‘Family Support’ Case

A woman walks in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria's Hasakeh province, where tens of thousands of mostly women and children linked to the ISIS terrorist group have been living for years, on Jan. 30, 2025. Bernat Armangue/AP Photo

A Montreal woman has become the first person in Canada to be convicted of providing family support to a terrorist entity as a spouse. She was sentenced to one day in custody after receiving credit for 110 days she served in pre-trial detention.

Oumaima Chouay, 29, plead guilty to one count of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, namely the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

An agreed statement of facts filed with the Court of Quebec says Chouay admitted to travelling to Syria nearly a decade ago to join the ranks of ISIS, “knowing that her expected role would include marrying an ISIS fighter and raising children under the ISIS doctrine.”

Chouay is not suspected of having participated directly in terrorist activities or actual combat.

She has also been given three years of probation that prohibits her from having direct or indirect contact with people or groups associated with extremism.

The sentence was part of a joint submission between the Crown and Chouay’s attorney, according to a July 21 release from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC).

PPSC director George Dolhai said the decision meets the goal of protecting the community.

“The recommended sentence here takes into consideration the early, ongoing, demonstrated and independently evaluated steps Ms. Chouay has taken to demonstrate remorse, take responsibility, commit to fundamental change and a rejection of extremist ideology,” Dolhai said in a statement.

Chouay has been ordered to continue “depolarization therapy” and psychiatric and psychological experts have deemed her a “very low” risk, the statement says.

Chouay was one of several Canadian women repatriated by Global Affairs in 2022 from two detention camps in northern Syria for the wives and children of ISIS fighters. She was arrested and charged by RCMP at the Montréal-Trudeau airport upon her arrival in Canada on Oct. 25, 2022.

RCMP said she had been under investigation by the National Security Enforcement Team since 2014.

Another Canadian woman, Kimberly Polman, that was repatriated from a camp in Syria had been arrested by Kurdish fighters during a conflict with ISIS in 2019.

The United Nations called on Canada in 2022 to bring Polman home due to her “life threatening illnesses.”

Polman was charged in 2024 with one count of leaving Canada to participate in activity of a terrorist group, and one count of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

Public Safety Canada notes that Canadian “extremists travellers” present challenges to Canada and its allies. It said that criminal prosecution was the “preferred course of action” to deal with those who have engaged in extremist activity.