AT LARGE
- Full name: Dorothée Maquère
- Pseudonym: Oum Othman, Khadjija
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Syria, fmr France, fmr Egypt, fmr Belgium
- Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Artigat and Toulouse Network [FAT]
Dorothée Maquère (°1980) is an Islamist extremist from the Norman town of Alençon. She converted to Islam after getting into a romantic relationship with her future husband Jean-Michel Clain in 1999.1 A few months after winning a local beauty pageant, Maquère began covering herself completely when she ventured outside.2 The couple moved to Toulouse shortly afterwards.3 Her husband and his brother became the driving force behind a growing Islamist community in the city and developed deep ties to Olivier Corel. Eventually the radicals would form the so-called Artigat and Toulouse Network [FAT; Filière d’Artigat et Toulouse].4
Between early 2003 and late 2004, Maquère and Clain lived in Brussels.5 During their stay in Belgium, the couple mingled with radical Islamists of North African descent. In 2005, Clain and Maquère made an aborted trip to Yemen. They were prevented from entering the country and traveled to Egypt where they linked up with Clain’s brother.6 The couple eventually returned to France in late 2007 or early 2008. Her husband and brother-in-law were arrested by French security services for their role in helping to send several FAT associates to go fight with Iraqi al-Qa’ida-linked jihadi forces.7 Maquère’s husband was released shortly afterwards.
In 2014, Clain, Maquère and their children traveled to Syria and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].8 They settled in Raqqa where they were soon joined by other families linked to the FAT. The couple remained steadfast in their allegiance to the DaIISh even as it fortunes turned dramatically in the late 2010s. By early 2019, they were holed up in the organization’s last Syrian stronghold of Baghouz. Maquère lost three of her children in fighting and air strikes.9 Her husband was eliminated in February.10 She and her five surviving children surrendered to Kurdish forces in early March 2019.11 Maquère gave an interview to French journalists shortly afterwards in which she defiantly claimed to have no regrets for joining the DaIISh and denounced American and European air strikes against the organization.12 She has since remained in a Kurdish prisoner camp where the woman is seen as one of the most fervent extremists.13 At one point, Maquère reportedly made a failed bid to flee from the site and rejoin the DaIISh.14
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