Tamerlan Beat Up His Former Girlfriend When She Would Wear 'American' Clothes

According to his former girlfriend, Tamerlan Tsarnaev would beat her up when she refused to wear a hijab and chose to wear American clothes. 

She said she ended up wearing a hijab because when she wore more western clothing he would become abusive with her.

Natalie Ascencao spoke out about her time with Tsarnaev, who she met when she was 17 and attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School with him.  She saw his slow  transformation into “a devout Islamic extremist – and he tried to force her to radicalize as well.”

Tamerlan went from a hard-partying boxer to “praying four times a day, watching Islamic videos and talking insane nonsense…” Ascencao even went to a mosque to please the future suspected terrorist/bomber. “I went to his mosque a couple of times and even looked into converting to make him happy. I thought, ‘This is crazy’ – but I still did it for him.”

She went on to say that Tamerlan tried to “brainwash” her  to “follow Islam.: 

“Tamerlan said I couldn’t be with him unless I became a Muslim. He wanted me to hate America like he did.”

Tsarnaev was ultimately arrested for assaulting Ascencao, “He slapped me across the face really hard.”  Unfortunately, the arrest did not result in his deportation. “When they said Tamerlan was dead, I didn’t cry,” she said.