Kimberly Gwen Polman

Polman says she had grown disenchanted with Daesh by 2016, and tried to escape. She says she was captured, and imprisoned, in Raqqa, where she endured brutal interrogation and rape.

In early 2015, Polman travelled from Vancouver to Istanbul on her US passport. She told her family that she was going to Austria for two weeks.

In 2011, the Soroptimist International issued her a Women's Opportunity Award. Her citation said she was working on a diploma in Legal Administration, and planned to work as a children's advocate.

Kimberly Gwen Polman (born 1972) is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, who travelled to Daesh occupied territory in 2015, and married an Islamic militant she had befriended online. In 2019, after she surrendered to forces allied to the United States, Polman told reporters she deeply regretted her actions.

Born September 29, 1972. Polman's mother is American, and her father Canadian. She was raised as a Reformed Mennonite, but later converted to Islam.

Polman was held in the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria, where she was held with New Jersey-born Hoda Muthana. Polman left three adult children in Canada when she travelled to Istanbul. Polman's siblings told The New York Times that she had a hard life, and that they had been unable to help her. Howard Eisenberg, an immigration lawyer in Polman's home town, told local reporters for CHCH-TV that he anticipates her struggle to return to Hamilton to be a long one. Polman was arrested by Canadian authorities upon her arrival in Montreal Canada from Syria on October 26th under Section 810 of the Canadian Criminal Code. Her lawyer said authorities are seeking a peace bond.