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Anna Erelle

Anna Erelle is the fictitious name of a French journalist based in Paris. Erelle had to change her identity due to death threats received from the Islamic state after her undercover investigation of how Islamic fundamentalists recruit girls in the West. Because of this, she lives under police protection and it is impossible to find information about her life and real identity.​

Background

Anna Erelle gained her popularity and became a known journalist when in 2014 she created a Facebook page to pose as a 21 year old teenager named Mélodie, with desires of joining the Islamic State. She created the fake page to contact one of the leader of the Jihadist. Her main objective was to understand why young women were mesmerized by the Islamic State and why they have deep desires of joining. Erelle, went as far as Skype calls with this leader and he even proposed marriage; she could not keep up with the double life, as it started to get threatening. She had to quit the contact and let the leader know that she was not coming to Syria, this news made the leader angry and caused her to receive death threats.

«I was afraid - this video with my face on it and they called to rape me and to kill me. When you saw that and especially when you are a woman, it's not easy, so I started to be afraid».​

Thanks to this experience, Erelle was able to write her most popular book In the Skin of a Jihadist: a young journalist enters the ISIS recruitment network. Erelle claims that she wrote this book in the hope for young muslim girls, she hopes to make them know that going to Syria and join ISIS is not a dream come true, but rather a nightmare.

Undercover Journalism

Undercover journalism is a form of journalism in which the reporter enters a community by pretending to be part of it; the main characteristic is that the infiltrated makes the rest of the community believe that they are part of it, rather than an outsider. In journalism, this technique is commonly used when investigating great drug lords or mafia groups. It is effective because it provides the journalist insight of a natural environment rather than an artificial one. As effective as it can be, it has high risks and it is very time taking to obtain optimum and valuable results.​

Her work

Among the books published by Anna Erelle are: Undercover Jihadi Bride, previously published as In The Skin of a Jihadist, and Losing My Religion. On her first book, The Skin of a Jihadist, the journalist chronicles how she managed to infiltrate the ISIS dome in her search to understand what motivates the youth into joining extremist causes, along with the inquiry of how technology and social media are permeating radicalism.

In the Skin of a Jihadist: a young journalist enters the ISIS recruitment network

Also known as Undercover Jihadi Bride. This international bestseller book positioned Anna Erelle as one of the most controversial and popular young journalists of the 21st century. As she was performing undercover journalism, she was able to enter the ISIS recruitment network through social media.

Mélodie is a 21 year old convert to Islam living in France with her mother and sister, through Facebook she meets Bilel, a high ranking militant for the Islamic State in Syria, who was born in France. After a short period of time, Bilel falls in love with Mélodie, proposes to her, and urges her to come to Syria and do Jihad. The high ranked, honey tongued militant promises the innocent young women a life full of material comfort and luxury.  

But ‘Melodie’ is Anna Erelle, a French based journalist who is investigating the recruitment channels of the Islamic state and the effectiveness of their propaganda -Jihad 2.0- . This propaganda technique is one of has been extremely effective and has come to mobilize masses from Europe to Syria.​

«He really told me one time it's the paradise here. I was thinking 'My God! How many others trust this kind of man?' Because it's really, you enter hell. So you can enter but you cannot go out».​

This book provides deep insight to how social media has become a platform where radicalism is spreading and aims for vulnerable young people.

Losing My Religion

Since the beginning of this outstanding journey which brought Anna Erelle both the best and the worst, her anger and anxiety come together to the French population against the scourge of jihadist terrorism. Erelle returns to those two years when anything was a smooth path and which completely changed her life, and our world. This book narrates the daily challenges of abuse in a disturbing, but sometimes funny way. A very personal story that addresses Islamism justly and directly.​

Film adaptation

Press conference at Berlinale 2018

Due to its international success, her book was welcomed to the big screen. At the beggining of 2018, Profile directed and produced by Timur Bekmambetov premiered at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section, where it won. The main character, called Amy (Valene Kane), is now a British journalist who virtually fights against an ISIS recruiter.​