Jailed TOWIE jihadi is back on our streets
THE only British woman to be jailed for joining Islamic State is back on the streets.
Tareena Shakil was nicknamed the TOWIE jihadi when it emerged the fan of reality TV shows such as The Only Way Is Essex fled to Syria with her toddler son in 014.
The former student, now 9, from Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, posed her son in an IS hat and appeared in pictures with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun.
After returning to the UK to face justice she told jurors she escaped after tricking an IS minder into allowing her on a bus to visit a non-existent husband. She then paid a taxi driver to take her close to the Turkish border. From there, she claims she ran across a field to safety with her son in her arms.
Shakil, whose mother, Mandy, 5 , is a white English Muslim convert, was convicted of joining IS and jailed for six years in February 016.
Her conviction came a year after she was arrested after touching down at Heathrow. She was released on licence in July, relatives said yesterday.
One said: ‘I’ve seen her a few times since then, including at Christmas. She has put all that radicalisation behind her and just wants to live a normal life now. She no longer wears a headscarf.’
The relative said Shakil had some ‘supervised contact’ with her son, but he was not in her custody.
Shakil’s father, Mohammed, 47, and brother, Tareem, 5, were jailed last November for running a county lines drug racket.