Give up hope of return to UK, Priti tells jihadi bride
JIHADI bride Shamima Begum has been told by Home Secretary Priti Patel to give up any hope of being let back into Britain.
Begum left the UK in 2015 as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to join Islamic State in Syria.
She later married Dutch-born IS member Yago Riedijk and spent more than three years living under the group’s rule. She gave birth to three babies, who all died of disease and malnutrition.
In an interview last week Begum, now 19, pleaded to be allowed to return to the UK, saying her only role in the so-called caliphate was to “make babies”.
However, when Begum’s request was put to Ms Patel, the Home Secretary said: “No way, no way”.
The Minister added: “Our job is to keep our country safe.
“We don’t need people who have done harm and left our country to be part of a death cult and to perpetrate that ideology.
“In terms of security and intelligence, I am simply not willing to allow anybody who has been an active supporter or campaigner for IS in this country.”
Begum has claimed she is suffering from mental health problems and that she now “hates” the Islamist terror group following the death of her children.
The Home Secretary’s refusal to soften her stance on Begum, who lived in London’s Bethnal Green, coincides with the plea of another British IS bride to be allowed to return. Tooba Gondal, 25, left her London home to join caliphate, also in 2015.
During her time in Syria she married three times to a succession of IS fighters, all of whom are now dead, and gave birth to two children.
She is being held at the Ain Issa detention camp in northern Syria with her three-year-old son Ibrahim and 18-month-old daughter Asiya. Gondal has been accused of being an IS “matchmaker”, grooming young women online to become jihadi brides.
She also praised the 2015 Paris terror attacks, in which 121 victims were killed.
But in an interview with a Sunday newspaper, she branded members of Islamic State as “criminals” and pleaded to be allowed to return home with her children.
Gondal said: “I know what the general public view me as, but I just want a chance to show everybody I’m a changed person.”
She has now penned an open letter to the British people asking for forgiveness.
She writes: “I want to face justice in a British court. I wish to redeem myself. I would like Britain to accept my apology and to give me another chance.
“I was forced at many stages to marry and I can’t say how many times I tried to escape.
“I wanted to leave from the start but it became impossible.These criminals threatened to kill my babies.” the so-called