Former 'First Lady Of ISIS' Lives In Plano, Documentary Reveals

PLANO, TX — Tania Joya Georgelas seems much like any other woman in North Texas. She wears makeup and jewelry, visits a hairdresser and no longer wear a jilbab or niquab. The only thing that differentiates her from the women around her is a slight British accent and an unbelievable past, which she first revealed to Texas Monthly.

Georgelas was once married to John Georgelas, an American-born man she describes as "the most senior American member of ISIS." A documentary from The Atlantic profiles Tania Georgelas, who now resides in Plano.

In the documentary, she describes the chain of events that landed her in Plano, starting with an unhappy upbringing in London and winding its way across Egypt, Syria and Turkey.

"Growing up in London was rough. I came from a very poor family," she said in the documentary. "We were second-generation immigrants and had faced a lot of racism. We had bad neighbors. They would smash our windows, but generally I just felt like an outsider. I was looking forward to retaliating, and I wanted honor again. Sept. 11, 2001, I was 17, and I saw the [Twin] Towers being crashed into. I went to school the next day; I said to my friend 'oh isn't it dreadful what happened?' She looked at me and she said, 'Was it so bad?' At that point, I became really jihadi, hardcore."

In 2002, she attended a rally to protest the war in Iraq. Men she met directed her to a Muslim dating website where she met her husband. They later married and developed a plan to raise their children to be Muslim soldiers.

"Our dreams were to have land of our own, raise a family, train them to be assassins or whatever — soldiers — then eventually go join the jihad," she said.

The family entered Syria when Tania was five-and-a-half months pregnant. She said she and her children fell sick, and John told her to take the children and leave. The Atlantic reports she fled from Syria into Turkey, where she recovered for some weeks before moving to London and eventually to North Texas, where she divorced her husband and met her now-boyfriend, Craig, on Match.com.

Her ex-husband John now goes by Yahya. The Atlantic reports Yahya went on to train as an Islamic State soldier after Tania left with her children. He later remarried and has since had two children with his new wife. He has served as a leading producer of English propaganda for the Islamic State's' magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah, since 2015, according to The Atlantic.

The Atlantic reports Tania and her boyfriend now attend a Unitarian church outside of Dallas. Tania said her new religious community has helped her feel at home in North Texas.

"When I left Islam, I was really trying hard to find another religion to replace it," she said. "I really missed having a community after leaving Islam, and it wasn't until we started going to this church that I really felt at home in Dallas."

Tania said she hopes to use her education to one day work for a program that helps rehabilitate former terrorists.

Watch The Atlantic's docmentary, 'First Lady Of ISIS' here:

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