The vanishing of burqa clad actress Soraya Abdullah and possible connections to terrorism.

For several years former model and actress Soraya Abdullah has studied Islam under M Iqbal alias Abu Jibril at the Al Munawwarah mosque in Pamulang. While attending his sermons Soraya developed a relationship with Jibril’s son M. Jibril alias Muhammad Ricky Ardhan (the founder of Ar Rahmah Media), who was arrested on August 25th on suspicion of arranging funding for terrorist activities in Indonesia, specifically for the Jakarta bombings in July.

Since Jibril’s arrest Soraya Abdullah has been in hiding, from the media, not the police.

Pre Jilbab Days

Her full name is Soraya Abdullah Balvas or Balfas, born in Jakarta in 1978 of mixed Indonesian-Arab descent, and is usually called Aya. Before she discovered hyper-religiosity she was a familiar face on television, starring in a number of commercials for products like Daihatsu Taruna, Cooling 5, Bayfresh, Nescafe, and Vaseline, and later moving into the world of sinetron, her most famous role being that of the snake queen Ratu Medusa in “Gerhana II”.

Jilbab Days

She is said to have undergone great emotional strain after her 2.5 year long marriage to a Balinese man ended in bitterness, and thereafter went to live in an Islamic boarding college, the pondok pesantren Al Ihya in Bogor. While there she chose to don the Islamic headscarf, the jilbab, in 2006. At the time the mother of two (Muhammad Senarai Ikhtiar and Siti Aisyiah Az-Zahra) said her motto had now become

Jihad in the way of Allah

Thereafter she continued to work in television, but in more religious themed soap operas, like “Hidayah” and “Misteri Illahi”.

Burqa Days

Her passion for religion continued to grow and after studying under Abu Jibril she chose to almost entirely cover herself, by wearing a burqa, and deserted the world of fame and glamour for religious contemplation and activism.

Rumours circulated that she and M. Jibril alias Muhammad Ricky Ardhan were considering marriage, while Aya’s father, Abdullah Saleh Balvas, denies this saying that their relationship was a purely business one.

Abdullah also claims that Soraya is not in “hiding” but that the family had long ago chosen to move out of Jakarta and live quietly in the countryside, and had done so since May 2009, before the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton attacks. vivanews