Italian young woman Silvia Romano, who was recently released after spending 18 months in detention in the Mujahideen Youth Movement between Kenya and Somalia, said that she converted to Islam of her own choosing and chose to become her name, Aisha, and indicated that she was not subjected to violence and spent difficult moments due to the civil war in Somalia.

The story of Silvia Rommano, 24, who was working in the relief organization "Africa Milli" when she was kidnapped on November 20, 2018, was reported in the village of Shakama, eighty kilometers from the city of Malindi in eastern Kenya, after which it was received by elements of the movement. The young men who moved it to Somali lands.

About that trip, Silvia Romano says, "It lasted about a month. At first there were two bikes, then one broke down. We went many stages on foot and crossed the river. I had five or six men, we walked eight or nine hours in a row."

In Somalia, the kidnappers put her in a room and explained that she had spent very difficult days. "I was desperate, I was always crying. The first month was terrible ... They told me they would not harm me, and they would treat me well. I asked for a notebook, I knew it would help me," said Silvia Romano, who spoke to the Italian Attorney General in charge of terrorism cases.

Silvia continues to tell her story, "I was always in a room on my own, I slept on the floor above some sheets. They never beat me and have never been subjected to violence."

Rah Silvia Romano: I was not forced to do anything, and the kidnappers were entering my room with their faces covered (Italian press)

Meanwhile, news circulated that she was forced to marry a prisoner while she was pregnant, but she denied this, saying, "I was not forced to do anything. The kidnappers were giving me food, and when they entered the room their faces were always covered. They were speaking in a language that I do not know, perhaps a tone." .. Only one of them spoke a little English .. I asked him about books and then asked to get the Qur’an.

Corriere della Sera newspaper says that perhaps at this moment the path of Silvia Romano's conversion to Islam has begun. "I was always locked up in the rooms. I read and wrote. Perhaps I was definitely in a village, I heard the voice of the muezzin calling out to pray several times a day ... I was reading the Qur’an and praying. I thought long and in the end it became my decision," Silvia says.

Selection or compulsion
 Commenting on that spiritual transformation, the newspaper said that the coming days will determine whether this choice was made under the influence of the psychological pressures that Silvia was exposed to in those months, a syndrome that often links the hostages to the reality of the kidnappers.

Because of the civil war in Somalia, the kidnappers decided to change the place of the Italian hostage repeatedly on long and sometimes tiring journeys, and they were photographed in a video three times to demonstrate that they are alive in the context of negotiations between the kidnappers and the Italian authorities through Turkish mediation sometimes.

These negotiations culminated in her release on May 8th and handing her over to her country's embassy in the capital, Mogadishu, where she ate pizza and slept on a bed while she was protecting Italian intelligence agents and a psychiatrist, before returning on a direct flight to the capital, Rome.

Most Italian newspapers report that the liberation of Silvia Romano was made for a ransom of between two and four million euros. While the Italian authorities remain silent on the subject, Silvia says she has not heard any talk of a ransom, but she understood from the words of her captors that they wanted the money.