A Brooklyn-born teenager married into the Islamic State at 18, and now she sits in a federal courtroom as the first woman in America to stand trial for it.
Quick Take
- Halima Salman, now 27, is the first woman in the United States to go to trial on charges of ISIS membership and training.
- Prosecutors say video shows her handling an AK-47 and that a handwritten document authorized her to carry ammunition.
- She allegedly joined an all-female ISIS unit called Nusaybah Katiba, made up mostly of fighters’ wives.
- Salman testified her father forced her into Syria and into marriage, and that she never trained with ISIS at all.
Weapons Video And A Handwritten Document Anchor The Case
Jurors watched cellphone footage prosecutors say shows Salman handling an AK-47 inside her husband’s Syrian home, walking back and forth while coaching herself on movement. She reportedly asked if she was being recorded. The government calls this weapons practice. The defense says the clip shows no instructor, no class, and no proof of formal training behind the gun handling.
A second piece of evidence, a handwritten paper pulled from her former husband’s phone, allegedly certifies Salman to receive an AK-47 and ammunition. Reports differ on the exact count, with some putting it at 150 rounds and others at 250. Nobody in open court has confirmed who wrote it, when, or whether it is even genuine, leaving its authenticity an open question for jurors.
Photos shown to the jury include Salman posing with her husband in front of an ISIS flag and a wedding picture reportedly taken after she turned 18. Prosecutors argue these images, paired with the weapons footage, prove she embraced life inside the terror group rather than merely surviving it.
A Case Without Precedent Draws National Attention
No American woman has gone to trial on these charges before, and that alone has pulled national cameras into a Brooklyn courtroom. Prosecutors allege Salman trained with Nusaybah Katiba, an ISIS battalion built largely from fighters’ wives, after her 2017 or 2018 marriage to a German-Afghan ISIS member known as Abu Ali. The novelty of the case means every photo and video carries extra symbolic weight beyond the narrow legal questions at stake.
An FBI agent testified Salman told investigators in a 2024 interview that she wasn’t really participating in anything and was just trying to fit in and be cool. Prosecutors point to that statement as proof she chose to stay. Defense attorneys counter that teenagers surrounded by armed men often say whatever keeps them safe, not what they actually believe.
Her Defense: A Father’s Choice, Not Her Own
Salman testified her father moved the family into ISIS-controlled Syria when she was 17, without her consent or full knowledge of his beliefs. She said he arranged her marriage at 18 and that she felt terrified, describing her heart as burning the day she learned who she would marry. Her lawyers argue this was a childhood kidnapping dressed up as a love story.
She also testified she was held for months in a guesthouse with other women and children before the marriage, and that afterward she could not leave her home without her husband present. She says she endured verbal abuse from his family and never once trained with a weapon. Her attorney called the photos nothing more than a scared teenager’s selfies in a marital home she couldn’t escape.
🇺🇸Brooklyn-born Halima Salman, now 27, is on trial in federal court as the 1st woman in the U.S. charged with joining ISIS, accused of receiving military training and posing with an AK-47 in her terrorist husband’s Syria home.
Prosecutors say her father moved the family to… pic.twitter.com/1RvcnqXHYy
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) October 21, 2026
The jury now faces a hard split. The same AK-47 footage, the same flag photos, and the same handwritten document can support two completely different stories, one of willing radicalization and one of a trapped teenager surviving an arranged marriage. Common sense says intent matters as much as imagery, and a courtroom built on circumstantial evidence owes jurors clarity on who trained her, when, and whether she ever had a real choice at all.
Sources:
nypost.com, us.headtopics.com, govinfo.gov, courthousenews.com, nyed.uscourts.gov
