‘Black Widow’ pregnant Muslim teen suicide bomber who blew herself up at Turkish police station was called ‘depraved’ by relatives for wearing short-skirts before marrying ISIS jihadist

Islamic State jihadist Diana Ramazanova, 18, blew herself up while detonating grenades in front of the Istanbul tourism police station last week. Ramazanova, from Russia’s Muslim region of Dagestan, is understood to have been the widow of an ISIS fighter killed six weeks ago in Syria.

UK Daily Mail  She married Abu Aluevitsj Edelbijev, a Norwegian citizen of Chechen origin, in a religious ceremony last year, either in Istanbul or in Syria, according to Turkish media.

Abu Aluevitsj Edelbijev

Family and friends said she had totally changed after meeting her extremist husband on a social networking site and then in Turkey. Her stepfather Magomed Ramazanov said: ‘Before leaving for Turkey, she was not deeply religious.  ‘On the contrary, she was even depraved. In Moscow, Diana worked in the restaurant at the Kursk station. I always scolded her for wearing short skirts.’

Tabloid news site lifenews.ru also quoted a Moscow teacher as saying: ‘I even rebuked her for wearing unsuitable clothes at school.’  Russian and Turkish media have published pictures of Ramazanova before she was married, showing a seemingly normal girl who took good care of her appearance.

Diana Ramazanova

But they were also quick to dub her a ‘black widow’, the label given to female suicide bombers from the Caucasus who carried out attacks after their husbands were killed by Russian security forces. Her mother Raizanat reportedly recognized the pictures of her daughter from Istanbul and has given a blood sample to enable DNA testing to confirm her identity. 

The Hurriyet daily newspaper claimed Ramazanova had entered Turkey on a tourist visa in May 2014, but Edelbijev may have entered the country illegally. 

Last July, the pair crossed the border from Turkey into Syria, joining ISIS jihadists who have seized large parts of Syria up to the Turkish border. He took the name of Idris while she became known as Sumeyra, it said.  After his death in December, she crossed the border back into Turkey on 26 December and stayed for 11 days at the Kadikoy Bade Hotel.

Diana Ramazanova in proper Islamic attire

She had two hand grenades when she attacked the police station at Sultanahmet. The first grenade did not explode and when she took out the second police shot her. The second grenade killed her and an officer. Another officer was injured.  

Born in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan in southern Russia, she had moved with her mother and stepfather, a builder, to Moscow. Magomed’s relationship with his stepdaughter was described by Russian reports as strained.   She was sent back to Dagestan where she graduated from a school in Derbent.

After this, she returned to Moscow and worked as a shop assistant and in a restaurant. She was not seen as deeply religious and, say reports, wore bright make up, dressed fashionably, and attracted attention. Magomed said: ‘Since June 2014 she had lived in Turkey.