“Adopted Islam out of my own free will” Freed Italian aid worker Silvia Romano says

[Deeq A.]

Rome (Caasimada Online) – An Italian aid worker, who was abducted in Kenya in November 2018 has revealed that she converted to Islam. An Italian news outlet reported.

Ms Romano, was seen wearing full Islamic clothes after she stepped off an Italian government plane at Rome-Ciampino International Airport.

The young woman dismissed speculations that she suffered psychological problems during her kidnapping, she also declined she was forced to get married and convert to Islam.

“Nobody forced me, it’s not true that I was forced to get married, I didn’t have any psychological problems, It happened in mid-captivity when I asked to be able to read the Koran and I was satisfied”.

Romano denied speculations that she married one of her jailers, she said these reports are baseless and an attempt to spread false information against me.

“I was held in different places and I never felt imprisoned, Quran was made available to me, I learnt some Arabic which further facilitated me to comprehend the teachings of Islam, my conversion process went slowly”

Romano, 24, touched down at Rome’s Ciampino airport aboard a special flight at about 2 p.m. (1200 GMT).

Escorted by masked men from the intelligence service, she lowered her mask briefly to display a broad smile after she descended the steps from the jet before hugging relatives waiting for her at the airport.

Shortly after Romano spent some time with her families, she was taken to the barracks to meet the prosecutors who started an investigation surrounding her kidnapping in Kenya.

“Every three months I changed my lair”, I was held in three different Lairs namely, Bula Falay, Harardhere and Janale. Silvia told the investigators giving new details of those past months without ever having been tied up or seeing her captors in the face. I never met other women, so the jailers, always the same and present in three, she explained.

“They assured me that I would not be killed and so it was,” she added.

Silvia Romano was abducted in late November 2018 by unknown armed men in Kenya while volunteering as an aid worker but later ended up in the hands of militants linked to Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamic extremists.